#camping arc is already almost over!! :(

[stinkrascal]

hopefullyyyy if i can do all the things i need to do quickly then a new straud post will finally be out this weekend!!! i missed my strauds sm, im so happy to get back to posting them 😭❤️

[suw4]

Homesick

Terushima Yuji from Haikyuu!!

an/tw: that one training camp arc in s2 except johzenji was apart of it too;just for the plot. in need of angst, request some angst kskwkwjsdjj

requested on wattpad

Masterlist | Haikyuu!! Masterlist

"Oh my," Shirofuku, the reddish brown-haired Fukurodani manager, muttered. Clutching the big empty plate close to her chest. "Look at how he handles that knife," Suzumeda, the second manager added. The managers stood by the counter in the kitchen as they watched Johzenji's male manager sliced up the watermelon. He noticed the two and smiled softly at them, still handling the fruit. "Oh, are the plates ready? I'm finishing up soon. Give me a moment," he gently informed them, to which they nodded. Walking closer to where he stood, observing him.

The other Johzenji manager then walked into the kitchen. Wondering where her second year was. "Oh! [Name]-kun! There you are. I've been looking for you. Wow, where did these watermelons come from?" Misaki pondered. "The parents from Shinzen High gave us a few. They offered to cut them, but I volunteered instead. I didn’t want to trouble them," [Name] replied as he cut the last slice. After that, he asked the Fukurodani girls to plate them nicely. "Hey, [N/n]-kun. Don't you think you're helping us a lot already? You should take a break. We managers, need a break too, y'know?" his senior mumbled warily. Though, he only shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I'm actually trying to get away from the crowd a little,"

"Oh? Is it too much for you?" she tilted her head. The other managers listening in curiosity. "Not particularly. How do I put it?" he trailed off as he helped the girls to put the last piece onto the third plate. "Homesick? I don't know the exact term, but I can't really adjust here," he admitted embarrassingly, clearing his throat as the said symptom was acting up. Facing away from the others to wash his hands and the kitchen tools. "Is that foolish?" he continued. "Nope! It's a valid reason. There were a few players admitting to us about that before, it’s common," Suzumeda assured him, Shirofuku nodding as to agree with her. Chomping down a slice of watermelon. "If you're feeling unwell, you can always rely on us!" she beamed.

[Name] thanked the girls for the reassurance. They grinned and bid a short farewell before going out to the gymnasium to give out the fruits. Misaki then took the last plate and glanced over to the two who had walked out. She then heard the [h/c] haired sighed heavily. "[Name]-kun. Would you like me to call him over to check on you? I'm sure you'll feel better," she peeped closer to the male. Patting his back. "Nah. It's alright. I'll manage," he answered. The other exhaled. "Okay then. Don't overwork yourself!" she warned him before catching up with the other managers.

The three girls announced happily to the volleyball players about the fruits. Cheers erupted amongst the boys. Practice matches came to a stop, and everyone went outside to taste the heavenly juices of the watermelon. Freshly replenishing their thirst and hunger. Yuji then walked up to his manager, taking one slice for himself. "Hana-san. Where's [N/n]?" he asked, curious about the [h/c] head. "Oh. Hm... He's in the kitchen washing the bottles. You should go see him," she told him. This perked the wing spiker. "Why? Is he okay? Is he sick???" he blurted out, worried. Before Misaki could answer, he was already on the way to the kitchen. He wanted to see [Name] right away.

"[N/N]!!!!!!!!!!" Yuji yelled, rushing towards the kitchen area. Slamming the door open and jumping onto the male. Almost losing his balance. Luckily, he was able to react quickly. Dropping the bottles into the sink and caught him. "Yu?? Why are you here? Ow!" The volleyball player slapped a hand on [Name]'s forehead. "Do you feel good?!" he asked, close to yelling. "What?? Yeah, I am. Did Hana-senpai say something to you?" he felt the blond slipping from his grip, so he hopped to adjust the position. Supporting Yuji's weight under his butt. Letting the player sit comfortably on his arms. "Are you sick!?" The blond continued with his questions. [Name] stared at him for a few seconds and laughed. "Calm down, baby. I'm fine. I'm just a little nauseous. But overall, I'm doing okay," he grinned, kissing his boyfriend. Yuji huffed, getting off the [h/c] head while the said male carefully put him down. "What's wrong, huh? Did ya eat something funny?"

"No. I think I'm just homesick," [Name] shrugged. Yuji clicked his tongue and placed his hands onto his hips. "That's because you've been inside for too long!" he exclaimed. Sounding too confident with his statement. He then took his boyfriend's hand and pulled him out of the kitchen, and out of the building. "Wait, I have to do the--"

"Nope! You're coming with me!"

Yuji led his lover to the same hill that Karasuno did their running punishment. He was dragging the male forward. Bouncing about as he was excited being outside with the love of his life. He stopped at the top with [Name] following up behind. The volleyball player took a deep breath of the fresh air. Feeling refresh as ever. "You smell that, babe? Smells like paradise!"

"Smells like an average afternoon to me,"

"Don't be such a killjoy, [N/n]!" the blond groaned, snapping his head towards him. Earning a chuckle from him. Yuji then sat down on the green land. Tugging the other down. [Name] followed suit and sat beside him. Then the cold breeze brushes along their skin. Yuji shivered lightly, causing his boyfriend to glance over. He watched him lean back with his hands in the grass to support his weight. His blond locs flowing gracefully along with the wind. The smile that was plastered on his face made him unconsciously smile. It was honestly goofy.

Sensing the eyes on him, Yuji turn to look at its owner. The smile had turned into a toothy one. Making the [h/c] head smile further. Suddenly, he didn't feel nauseous anymore. "You're so cute, Yu. And annoyingly hot," he complimented. Yuji hummed cheekily. "Of course I am! I am the Terushima Yuji. The one and only,"

"Yeah..." [Name] uttered quietly. His loving gaze still fixated on his boyfriend. The blond raised his brows as he observed the manager's expression. He smirked. "You're so in love with me that you can't help it don't you? You want to kiss me so bad," he teased, sticking out his pierced tongue. [Name] scoffed and smirked. Leaning closer and placing his lips onto the other. It was short and sweet. Nothing more. As he parted from the kiss, he saw the baffled look on Yuji's face--which soon turned into disappointment. "That's it?!" he gaped. [Name] let out a laugh. "What? you can tease me, but I can't tease you, sweetheart?"

"Aw, c'mon, [N/n]!" Yuji whined as he shook his boyfriend. The two began to banter about. Pushing each other and laughing around like they were the only ones in the whole wide world. Once the chaos had finally calm down, Misaki came walking by to inform Yuji that practice has started. The male groaned in annoyance. He wanted to spend more time with his lover. So instead of separating, he forced the boy to watch him play. In that way, he could play at his top performance; he says. Instantly, he stood up and pulled the taller up. Dragging him once more, straight into the gym. Misaki watched them and sighed while shaking her head. "He looks better now... I'm glad," she mumbled to herself. Mentally thanking Johzenji's team captain.

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 07/09

Anonymous asked: also, thats pretty distinctly not vriskas handwriting (page 2196). the hell is terezi even talking about?

Terezi, for god's sake.

@manorinthewoods asked: I'd like to note that Pyralspite's eyes are either an eighth the brightness of Alternia's sun, or Pyralspite has the ability to psychically burn out people's eyes just by wanting to. Probably the former. ~LOSS (30/8/24)

I should have guessed that Vriska's cruel and unusual punishment for Terezi was yet another case of Mindfang Roleplay.

I think it's likely that Pyralspite does have some sort of ocular ability. After all, Terezi's lusus had a vision-based power, and she's probably Pyralspite's direct descendant.

@gogogoat495 asked: Say, what do you think of the reuse/mix of animation and music from Dave: Ascend to Seer: Ascend? Is it a simple callback or are there deeper parallels between the characters and story beats?

Well, they are both lead-ups to a climactic fight between 'siblings'. Other than that, though, I'm not really sure. Dave and Terezi have always got on very well, but I can't really see any direct parallels in their personal arcs.

@manorinthewoods asked: Mindfang's classism is ridiculous. This woman straight up said 'one of such middling 8lood' about someone literally one step below her on the ladder. If she were Tavros, she would be oppressing Aradia so hard. ~LOSS (29/8/24)

In Terezi's own words, she's 'a little too teal' to be considered a true highblood. I think there's a hard line of separation here, where anyone below Vriska's caste is considered a midblood at best.

In other words: to be a blueblood, you really need to be a blue-blood.

@manorinthewoods asked: Nepeta, whose handle is arsenicCatnip, uses arsenic's atomic number as a significant element of her quirk. This implies that arsenic has the same atomic number in Alternia as on Earth, which in turn means that, at the very least, the two universes likely share a periodic table. Odd, given how one has widespread psychic abilities and the other doesn't. ~LOSS (29/8/24)

I think it makes sense that Earth inherited some of its scientific concepts from Alternia. It wouldn't be the first thing we inherited!

@heliotropopause asked: TG: maybe if you kill her at least we can finally stop obsessing over her Hah! homestuck's been over for over for almost eight years now, and people are still doing vriscourse to this day. There is no escape, i'm afraid.

'Vriscourse' is kind of killing me. I'm kind of disappointed that this is my first time hearing the term, because I'd probably have been using it this whole time.

@probablyapineapple asked: im not completely caught up on reading this liveblog yet (currently up to s67) but i think youre on track to understanding these characters better than literally anyone

Well, thank you! I have, admittedly, posted some rather hot takes in the past, though. If I recall correctly, my Act 5 shipping chart was my most controversial post to date.

@bladekindeyewear asked: Back during these times in the comic, there were broad theoryposting camps advocating for both narrower and broader interpretations of Aspect domains/powers. I know you're avoiding as much outside influence as you can, but I'm wondering if maybe after the end of this Act, you could accept some community Theorydiving from around this time that could unlock more tools for you to understand hidden evidence for Aspect Stuff you might have missed? […]

I'm definitely considering something like that. Specifically, I'd love to take a look at some of the comic's early theories - ones that had already been disproven by this point in the comic. That'll allow me to get into the headspace of Homestuck's earliest theorists, without influencing my own as-yet-unproved theories.

@manorinthewoods asked: Perhaps an older Legislacerator's job is less actually trying to pursue justice, and more going through cargo cult-esque rhythms of justice, taking its trappings and trying to bring it about while having no understanding of what they're actually doing and what the meaning of their actions is. Maybe, like the Subjugglators, they're an entire social class/blood color based around a single cult? ~LOSS (28/8/24)

I think Dave was pretty on the mark when he described early legislacerators as bounty hunters. Maybe they assumed something marginally closer to an attorney's role in Alternia's modern age - but in Redglare's era, the ideal legislacerator was a violent thrill-seeker, more concerned with bloody combat than courtroom paperwork.

@violetsquare111 asked: I do wonder how big, exactly, is the multiverse in Homestuck. I guess that's a bit of a weird question if there are "infinite universes"… but infinite potential doesn't mean infinite already-existing universes, does it? For some reason I always thought of the amount of Sburb sessions/universes being fairly small, in the grand scheme of things. Less than a million, maybe. I really don't know where I got that from, and there's probably some throwaway line in the comic contradicting it, but if applicable then it's another possible explanation for how Perfect Jack would be one-of-a-kind.

It's not impossible. That would imply that the overwhelming majority of sessions are doomed to fail - but, honestly, they might be! After all, neither of the sessions we've seen so far have been unambiguously successful.

@iris-in-the-dark-world asked: i had a dream that you went from page 3703 to page 7053 in one day

You dreamt of Sally on Adderall.

@spiddermen asked: hihi i just caught up with your liveblog and im so happy to have a chance to reread hs along with you, the first time i read it was when i was like… twelve? so nine years ago? and pretty much all of it went over my head. but now im finally getting to appreciate this masterpiece and your observations are making a lot of stuff click for me as well. so its cool to finally get to understand how freaking good this story is and i cant wait to see you react to some of the crazy later stuff also i hope this doesnt trip the spoiler sensor but some of the answers to the questions you're asking are only answered in sequel material so i do really hope you'll read those, they're ignored by a lot of the fans but they're honestly really really good and i feel like you're the kind of person who would get the intended experience out of them. and psycholonials as well! everyone ignores it but it practically is homestuck (2) to me

Thank you! And yeah, we've talked a bit about this before. Cat and I had a discussion about the subject back in Act 3, and I'm well aware that this comic isn't going to answer all of my questions. Honestly, it would be pretty surprising if it did - I've been digging really deep into aspects of the comic that are clearly just meant to be background details.

As for whether I'll be dipping into Hussie's other projects, or Homestuck's non-canon material - I'm certainly going to check them out, but only time will tell whether they get the full liveblogging treatment. That said, if it addresses questions of mine that Homestuck itself doesn't elaborate on, consider my interests piqued.

@manorinthewoods submitted: I sorta skimmed Homestuck, and missed out on basically all of the Flashes going through, so I totally missed the fact that WQ wrote a romantic fanfic about herself, which is really funny. It does have a serious aspect, though - it implies something about her relationship with WK, no? I suspect they may be friendly with one another, but fate gives their relationship a bit of tragedy - as well as a bit of 'we are simultaneously both forced to be in a romantic relationship and also only being co-rulers'. Is WQ<3WK a thing? Doesn't have to be. I suspect it may be something like WQ<>WK […]

Plus, Carapacians are clones, so it's not like the Royals need to make any heirs. Really, they only need to be co-workers - but the idea that they might have a moirail-adjacent relationship is very cute.

Anonymous asked: Grimdark Rose: "Vengeance and rage are all I live for now, seeing my dead mother makes me feel nothing, I will-" John: Exists Rose: "OMG bestie hiiiiii" ~DJ

First Vriska, now Rose. It seems like John's the perfect calming influence for any out-of-control Light Player.

Anonymous asked: Not sure if you noticed, the tapestries about the kids' quests are all referencing the [S] pages with misattributed quotes associated with each kid (pages 82, 307, 444, and 2988). The quotes are, respectively, from Maxims by Francois de La Rochefoucauld, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, Drop It Like It's Hot by Snoop Dogg, and possibly an original piece by Hussie ending with a line from Hamlet. I don't think any of them mean anything.

The quotes might not be Hussie originals, but they definitely seem to evoke the kids' respective Quests. Dave's quote is a bit of an exception, though...

Anonymous asked: "They wait for he who would drop it while it's hot whilst the pimp's in the crib." I mean, you laugh NOW, but knowing Andrew and this comic, can you honestly say this won't end up having an incredibly important and literal meaning? @walkerbehindyou asked: Is there a quest more suited for Dave than to show up at his denizen’s (certainly the pimp of LOHAC) palace in the past and drop straight fire?

...but perhaps that means it's foreshadowing something we haven't seen yet. If Dave ends up making a Choice, I wouldn't put it past him to rap an answer to his Denizen.

@iris-in-the-dark-world asked: the soundtrack of the grimdark rose segment really gets to me. i'd highly recommend the first few songs of that album

Black Rose/Green Sun was a great song. It evoked a very different feeling than anything we've heard before, and really highlighted how alien Rose has become, now that she's been fully submerged in darkness.

@manorinthewoods asked: Ooh, here's an idea - when you do the Sahlee-and-Sally Let's Play, set it in an alternate Sburb that's based on all of your incorrect theories. Every Land has a God Tier Moon orbiting it, for instance. Would be really cool - your theoretical Sburb has a lot of super fun stuff in it. ~LOSS (12/8/24)

Oh, I like that idea. It means I can finally bring back the anti-Skaia, which is probably my favourite since-disproven theory.

Anonymous asked: I never realised that the pillow that Rose uses then is the one from her mum - well spotted :,(

A mother will do whatever is best for her children.

And a daughter will remember what was best about her mother.

Anonymous asked: So. Do you think that a Horrorterror-Boosted Rose has any chance against a First Guardian Prototyped Jack Noir? We've seen that if left alone Jack can destroy Entire Worlds and his teleporting is Nigh Instant, plus who knows how far he can go in a single teleport! […]

Dark Rose is arguably a God-Tier level threat, but we've just seen Jack one-shot a God Tier. I don't think she has a hope - there's only so many bullet-time stabbings she can take!

Anonymous asked: its really interesting to see you say that rose saying she felt mom was a sister and a mother at once made u feel like there must have been camraderie. for me, it reinforced the idea that moms parenting forced rose to act like a peer to mom when it came to her alcoholism? in the sense that moms alcoholism took her out of commission, and made it so that rose had to take care of herself in a lot of ways that a parent would, putting them on similar levels. So its interesting to see a different interpretation!

It's not impossible. To me, Rose's monologue reads as if she's trying to express her admiration of her mother. This is the first time she's admitted to having positive feelings for her guardian, and I think she's regretting that she never voiced these feelings to the woman herself, before it was too late.

That's just one reading of her words, though. I think her monologue here is meant to be ambiguous, just like the Lalonde mother-daughter relationship always was.

@manorinthewoods asked: Ooh, you're thinking of a Carapacian player, huh? That would be interesting - imagine if they go in with, like, complete knowledge of how Sburb works, so they prototype something super strong in order to buff the Ring that they then steal and equip. ~LOSS (12/8/24)

That would be interesting. Carapacians are the only species where the game can't fully compensate for the power of your race by buffing Underlings, since buffing the Underlings would also buff the Ring I'm abusing!

@skelekingfeddy asked: re: troll romance: i generally lean towards xenopsychology, mixed in with a secret 4th thing (humans can also feel troll romance), with a little dose of propaganda, and also an undercurrent of parody (because Hussie. everything has an undercurrent of parody (e.g. pretty much all the trolls are based on internet stereotypes). i COMPLETELY disagree with the notion that the quadrants are made up unhealthy bullshit. i think theres a genuine evolutionary biological origin for the quadrants if matespritship is all about Companionship, then kismesissitude is all about Competition, Rivalry, a drive to push yourself and make yourself better. both are generally healthy and beneficial in their own ways. the evolutionary basis for moirallegiance and auspisticism is the need for pacification, a better half, to prop up matespritships and kismesissitudes and keep them from being interfered with (as described in-comic). each quadrant is the result of a genuine primal, biological urge

I don't necessarily think the quadrants are fabricated, but I do think that the version of them that exists on Alternia are unhealthy more often than not, particularly when it comes to black romance. Monogamous auspisticism requires an overwhelming amount of emotional labor, all the kismesissitudes we've seen have been toxic at best, and there has to be a better way to do this.

Anonymous asked: My brother's been going through your liveblog recently and it's been fun getting to re-experience it through him, especially being reminded of all the theories you have that are shockingly accurate in very inaccurate ways. The two that come to mind are your theory that Jade was engineered in a lab (which, she kinda was, but that's not unique to her) and that John's version of Sburb is bugged (the meteors, it turns out, were a part of the game as it's meant to be played, but this whole 'tumour' thing sure isn't). Also, while I'm here, going to recommend checking out Temporal Shenanigans by Rachel Rose Mitchell, which is a gorgeous fansong about Aradia that shouldn't have any spoilsies at this point. I would also rec PhemieC's music with the caveat that many of their songs are spoilery - while most of the troll-specific ones should be alright, I'd definitely say to get someone else to go through them first to be certain. Hope you're doing well!! And I look forward to seeing more of your liveblog if and when you return to it! -Megido

Oh yeah, I was talking about how Jade was made in a lab! I'd totally forgotten about that theory.

You know, her Dreambot is actually interesting in retrospect. The bed that controls it looks suspiciously like a Quest Bed, which makes me wonder just how much Grandpa knew about Sburb's lore, and what exactly he was trying to do here.

Anonymous asked: I find it a bit funny (in good way) how aspects of your troll and human sona are kinda opposites, like life and death type of thing, sweet

Really, it's mostly just me hedging on my own Aspect. Plus, having two 'sonas lets me explore twice as much Sburb lore, allowing me to come up with two weapons, Lands, Title powers, and the like.

Within the hypothetical context of the fic, I've been thinking a lot about why there'd be two Sallys. Like, was one 'sona partially cloned from the other? If so, who was the original? Technically, the Alternian version would have existed 'first', but the existence of time travel ensures that that doesn't mean much.

@manorinthewoods asked: Rather appropriate that Rose's weapon is her Thorns. ~LOSS (10/8/24)

Ayyy!

@ipunchvampires asked: "You should understand [Rose has] been corrupted by various entities with some rather questionable motives," says Entity with Rather Questionable Motives corrupting her. Kind of the perfect Doc Scratch line, honestly.

Doc Scratch is an awful person, but he's still a funny fuck.

@heliotropopause asked: wait. is that *Guybrush Threepwood* in the boat there??? @elkian asked: At the risk of being the 88th person to say something, the troll in the dinghy is a Guybrush Threepwood cameo (using the more cartoony style from Curse Of Monkey Island etc.). Man's truly unfortunate, or maybe he's lucky for not being a focal character? XD Anonymous asked: that 'one random motherfucker on a little dinghy' is in fact, guybrush threepwood from the monkey island series, thrown in as an easter egg by one of the artists who made assets for the flash @sanctferum asked: the troll on the dinghy is Troll Gybrush Threepwood. the guest artist for that scene confirmed this on the now-defunct MSPA forums IIRC

Ahahaha. Mystery solved, I guess!

I've been wanting to play Monkey Island for some time - and now I need to, so that I can understand the true backstory of of GY'BRSH TRPWUD.

Anonymous asked: I love this section, because I think it really shows something about Dave (and Rose). Because Dave just says whatever pops into his head, when he's getting command prompts, he just repeats them uncritically. (That also supports that when he said he didn't love his Bro, it was his honest reaction) @ben-guy asked: David "Zero Filter" Strider was absolutely not ready to have thoughts beamed directly into his head by an exile lmao @krixwell asked: It's so funny to me how when thoughts are incepted into Dave's subconscious mind, they just come falling right back out his mouth at the first opportunity. Filter, what filter? Those sunglasses don't hide shit.

Reminds me of his stress-rambles from early on in the comic. The reason he wears those shades is, I think, because he is a naturally expressive person - he just doesn't want to be.

[josukegappyhigashikata]

Not every character is meant to be likeable: Jake Disventure Camp.

So, as of late I've been seeing people dislike and be annoyed at Jake and like... yeah! He is meant to be exasperating but I don't think that's bad writing at all.

Meanwhile I would absolutely never call Disventure Camp a perfectly written show I will say that it has had very good character writing with having delivered some high notes on both of the previous seasons so now I wanna talk about Jake's writing in All-Stars.

First of all, Jake's writing? Very consistent. Jake's title was the naive one and yeah he is naive. He is paranoid as hell, he is gullible as sin, he is easily tricked by others, he is so easily manipulable to the point of characters pointing that out and all of those traits have been consistent with Jake through his seasons. The newest trait found was Jake's jealousy over Aiden but that jealousy was born over his paranoia and naivety which are both part of his established traits.

Also, something to be mentioned is that just like Ellie, James and Riya he has a context and background for those tough edges. We know that Jake's family life is not the best both from the show and from extra material, we also know that he was in a toxic relationship that he later got cheated on which was the breaking point of the relationship. Living with a family that you feel that you're always waiting for a mess to happen, which is implied his parents don't accept his homosexuality, would have easily made someone paranoid which now with a toxic relationship and one of the actual worst things happened to him? Jake is always waiting for something bad to happen and when that bad thing happens he thrives in his own victimization. Meanwhile this was seen in his season this has been more focused on the latest season and not only that but it has been less sympathetic towards him how easily he falls into those spirals of negativity.

Jake has had a lot of focus on All-Stars but also he is one of the characters that has his arc not be resolved at all, just like how Alec, Aiden and Gabby didn't have their arcs finished on their seasons by having other characters take priority over them. Now it seems they're taking their time to finish almost all the arcs they didn't give a proper conclusion to.

Now, I will say that I don't adore how he is a grown ass man being coddled by women which now Ashley was used for his development even though I know a character like Ashley wasn't made like Grett or Jake where they really thought of making them deep characters. It's still no excuse to have a female character that had already not had a lot of time to shine just be a stepping stone for a male character but it has a reason for it even if I dislike it.

Is Jake a dislikeable character? For some people? Yeah, he is very much dislikeable but also the traits he is disliked for are things that are written to be traits you see as negative. You're not meant to say: "Oh, yeah. It's fine that Jake is a stupid dumbass that gets clouded by his feelings at any moment." because it's obvious that his arc is overcoming those flaws in his character.

You might find Jake dislikeable and that's alright but I don't think that's bad writing, it's also not wrong if you like him since not only is he an entertaining character in his own messiness (which is that messiness why I find him an entertaining character) but he is a sympathetic character with what we know of him.

You're not meant to like every character, sometimes characters start dislikeable and you're meant to see them grow out of their flaws which after the tenth episode of All-Stars it seems that's where Jake is going.

Ever so often you have to take a step back and ask yourself: "What are the creators trying to convey with this story? Is it me not liking certain traits of a character an intended outcome?"

[captainremmington-13]

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖆𝖚𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖗

show!Luke Castellan x daughter of thanatos!reader

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the image above or any of Rick Riordan’s characters/world-building. I only own the characters Lola, Layla, and Reylynne , who are featured in this chapter.

⚠️Warnings⚠️: some violence, swearing, mentions of night terrors and death, parental neglect, mild angst, confusing feelings, crying, mentions of puberty

A/N: doing martial arts not only made me stronger, it made it WAY easier to write fight scenes lmao

also, this whole chapter takes place while reader and Luke are both seventeen

Angel.

Who knew one simple word could turn your world upside-down?

According to Luke, he’d said it because you resembled one. Though you made it clear you disagreed, he firmly stood by it. 

How could he see the offspring of death itself as an angel? He was truly a mystery at times.

Nevertheless, the nickname stuck.

.

.

.

“Hey.” 

Luke’s voice snapped you out of your thoughts. He was walking up to where you were resting on a worn-down stone bench. 

You were both participating in sparring practice with the rest of the older campers. Unlike the basic sword-fighting classes that Luke hosted for demigods new to camp, these practices were cutthroat. Everyone wanted to prove themselves, and would do almost anything for glory.

“Getting tired already, Castellan?” you teased, scooting over so he could sit next to you.

Luke playfully rolled his eyes. “Not at all. You know I have an incredible amount of stamina.” 

You laughed. “Sure, sure.” You tightened your fingerless leather gloves, and picked up your beloved weapon. “I think I’m done resting for now. Who are you going to spar next?”

“You,” Luke said, as if it was obvious. “It’s been awhile since we’ve faced each other in combat, because we’re always on the same side.” 

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

The two of you walked to the center of the arena, and positioned yourselves about ten feet from each other. Luke raised his sword, his eyes burning with intensity. Even though he was your best friend, you couldn’t deny that it was terrifying to fight against him. He had incredibly fast reflexes, impressive strength, and an intimidating presence. 

You gripped your dual-ended sword so tightly that your knuckles turned white. At least your weapon of choice was almost as tall as you, which allowed you to stay far away from your opponent while still being able to attack. If you were desperate enough, you could throw it like a spear to catch him off-guard and disarm him while he was distracted. 

“Ready, angel?” Luke asked. 

Almost immediately after you nodded in agreement, Luke charged towards you, raising his blade and bringing it down in a deadly arc.

You deflected the blow with the right side of your weapon, and jabbed at his chest with the opposite end. He easily avoided it, and backed up a few feet, waiting for you to make the next move. 

“Come on, don’t go easy on me now,” Luke said, a teasing smile on his face. 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” you replied, lunging forward and sending a stab to his abdomen. 

It became a constantly changing game of cat-and-mouse. When one of you became more aggressive and offensive, the other would play defense until they tired out their opponent. 

Many of the other demigods had already called it quits and left the arena, allowing you both to expand your range of motion. Eventually, it was just you and your best friend, alone in the ancient-looking arena. 

You were beyond tired. Your arms felt like they were made of solid Celestial Bronze, and your legs shook from soreness. You were drenched in sweat, which was not a fun feeling. But you refused to surrender, no matter how miserable you felt.

You brought your weapon down like a club, trying to hit Luke’s shoulder. He blocked it, but his sword flew out of his hands. Instead of retrieving it, he sent a swift kick to your sternum, sending you stumbling backwards. Before you could regain your composure, Luke had you pinned to the ground, one hand on your left shoulder and the other holding your wrists together. 

You silently thanked the Fates for the fact that the arena was empty. Otherwise, you’d never hear the end of it from the other campers. 

“I surrender,” you said quietly, your eyes closing as fatigue overtook you. “I’m too fucking tired to keep going.” 

Luke let go of your wrists and shoulder, brushing your sweaty hair out of your face. He still hovered over you, but his expression was much gentler. 

“You alright?“ he asked, setting his sword down to help you sit up. 

“Yeah…yeah, I’m fine,” you said breathlessly, trying to ignore the dizziness swarming your head. “I’m just fucking exhausted. You’re the toughest opponent I’ve ever faced, and I’ve fought a horde of young Cyclopes.” 

He laughed, “You flatter me, angel.” As soon as you were on your feet again, he wrapped a toned arm around your waist, surprising you. This was perhaps the most intimate touch he’d ever given you. Not that you were complaining though. It felt nice. “Now, let’s go get some food.“ 

“Best idea you’ve had all day.” 

________________________________________________

“Hey, you!” 

Your eyebrows furrowed as you saw Lola, a daughter of Aphrodite, looking at you pointedly. She was surrounded by her sisters and a couple daughters of Demeter. 

“I have a name, you know,” you said, standing up and putting a hand on your weapon’s condensed form instinctively. 

“Relax, I promise I’m not trying to hurt you,” Lola said. “Come on, sit with us.” 

You mentally weighed your options. The worst they could do was mock and belittle you, charmspeak you into doing something stupid, or curse you with a bad makeover. And if they did, they’d definitely be caught. Chiron would give them kitchen duty or stable cleaning duty, which would undoubtedly mortify them.

So instead of choosing the stereotypical “I’m-edgy-and-introverted-so-I-don’t-want-to-talk-to-anyone” option, you walked over to where your fellow demigods were congregated.

“Hi,” said a girl you recognized as a member of Cabin 4 (Demeter’s cabin). “I’m Katie Gardner.”

“Nice to formally meet you,” you said, smiling slightly. “I’ve seen you around, you’re in charge of the strawberry-picking, right?”

She nodded. “Yep. And you’re…Thanatos’s child, right?” 

You winced. “Yeah…yeah, that’s me.”

Her expression held no judgement, which made you relax considerably. Lola cleared her throat, diverting your attention to her.

“So, you know Luke Castellan, don’t you?”

“Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine. Why do you ask?”

You didn’t really need to add the last part; you already had a good guess as to why she was asking. 

You and Luke were now seventeen. No longer were you awkward young teenagers who’s proportions never seemed to match up properly. You felt well-adjusted to your more mature body, glad to be rid of the abomination that was puberty. 

Luke looked quite different than when you’d first met him. He’d been a slightly scrawny, cute teen with a sweet smile and wavy brown hair. His hair had become curlier, his figure was more muscular thanks to his rigorous training schedule, and he’d become much more confident in himself. Though his ego was a bit irritating at times, it did add to his charismatic personality.

It was no surprise that people had begun taking romantic interest in him. 

Lola smiled, showing off her pearly white teeth. “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

You shrugged. Honestly, you hadn’t really spent much time analyzing his appearance. “I guess so.”

“So then why haven’t you started going out with him?” 

“Excuse me?”

One of Lola’s sisters spoke up. “Hon, you and Castellan are like two peas in a pod. I rarely see you apart.“

You bury your face in your hands, sitting down on the grass. This was perhaps the most awkward conversation you’d ever had. Well, besides that one time you had to explain to Luke why you felt like your stomach was being stabbed by invisible knives for days on end.

“That’s because he’s my best friend,” you say quietly, hoping that nobody else was listening in. If this conversation got around, it would cause a lot of unnecessary gossip. “He’s the only person who I trust with my life, and he trusts me with his.”

Another daughter of Aphrodite scoffed, playing with her perfectly straightened hair. “That’s ironic, considering that you’re literally the spawn of death itself.” 

“Reylynne!” Katie said disapprovingly. 

“It’s fine,” you said nonchalantly. “It’s true, I am death’s child. Anyways, my point is that Luke and I…we’re just…you know, really good friends. I don’t know how else to explain it.” 

“We just think you two would be super cute together, that’s all,” another of Aphrodite’s daughters chimed in. “Oh, I’m Layla, by the way.” She held out her hand, and you shook it gently. 

“I understand where you all are coming from,” you said as politely as possible. “But I don’t  like Luke that way. I don’t think I ever will.”

Reylynne smirked, which made you inexplicably nauseous. “Fine by me. If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”

“Reylynne!” Lola chastised, swatting her upside the head. 

You stood up, brushing the grass off of your leggings. “I better go. I have to help my cabin-mates clean up before the inspection later tonight.” 

“Alright,” Lola said, giving you a friendly smile. “Feel free to hang out with us whenever you want, ok?”

You nodded, hiding your shock. Giving them an awkward wave, you ran towards Cabin 11, glad to have finally escaped that extremely personal discussion. 

Even worse, it wasn’t really the topic of conversation that bothered you. 

It was the fact that it had planted a thought inside of your head:

you and Luke really would be a great couple.

________________________________________________

It was another sleepless night. 

You’d tossed and turned for hours before giving up. You simply couldn’t get your body to relax. There was far too much on your mind.

Even worse, the main subject of your thoughts was sleeping just a few feet away from you. 

You rolled over on your mattress to face Luke’s bunk, which was right next to yours. He was partially covered by his blankets, but you could still make out the old, torn camp t-shirt he slept in. His eyelashes fluttered sporadically, and his breathing was slow and steady. 

He looked calm, at ease. The sight made you smile.

If anyone deserved peace of mind, it was Luke.

You moved back into your back, closing your eyes once more. Maybe, if you tried really hard to clear your mind of any Luke-related thoughts, you could achieve a few decent hours of rest. 

Sure enough, drowsiness began to set in. Pulling your dark grey fleece blanket tighter around you, you prepared to enter Hypnos’s realm. 

But just as you felt yourself begin to drift off, someone whimpered beside you. 

Your eyes snapping open, you turned to face Luke, squinting in order to see him in the dim moonlight. 

He was clutching his sheets, his breathing had become heavy and frantic, and he was murmuring in an obviously panicked tone.

“Thalia, no! No, please don’t go, I can’t lose you again, let me die instead!” 

He was having a nightmare about the fateful night that he, Thalia, and Annabeth had arrived at camp. 

You knew how much he had cared for Thalia. They’d spent quite a bit of time on the run together, and developed a fiercely tight bond. He’d confessed that he’d started crushing on her at some point, but that never went anywhere because of her unfortunate demise. 

You felt like Khione herself had frozen you to your mattress. You wanted to wake him up and free him from his night terrors, but you also weren’t sure if you could properly comfort him. 

Still, you had to at least try. He needed to know he wasn’t alone.

As quietly as possible, you got out of bed and crept over to his mattress. You gently pulled the covers off of Luke, and gently shook him by the shoulders a few times.

Luke jolted awake, grasping his sheets tightly. Your heart tightened painfully when you saw the tears welling up in his eyes. 

“Oh, Luke…” you trailed off, not knowing what to say. 

“Angel,” he whispered, his voice cracking slightly. “You okay?”

“You were having a nightmare. About the night you arrived at camp.”

Luke sat up slowly, hastily wiping away the tears that had begun to run down his cheeks. “Yeah…yeah, I remember now. Gods, it was horrible. I saw her get overpowered and injured by the monsters all over again. It was like everything was in slow-motion just to torture me.” 

You placed a hand on his forearm, rubbing soothing circles on his clammy skin with your thumb. “You’re okay, Luke. It was just a dream.”

“About a very real thing,” he added. “Thalia died because of me. I didn’t do enough to protect her.” 

Instinctively, you pulled Luke into a hug when he began to cry again. You ran a hand through his curls softly, hoping it would calm him down somehow. 

“Don’t blame yourself,” you said. “Blame the Fates. Blame Hades for sending the monsters. Blame all of the fucking gods. They have failed at properly protecting their children. You did everything you could’ve done. You got Annabeth to safety, and Thalia met a hero’s fate. Her memory will live on, as her presence strengthens the border that shields us from the mortal world.” 

He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer. You sat there for what seemed like millennia, letting him cry against your shoulder.

Finally, he stopped trembling, and pulled away slightly. “You’re right,” he whispered. “I know it isn’t my fault, it’s the gods’ fault. I just…I just miss her. She was so funny, such a good fighter, and an incredibly loyal friend. She deserved so much better. You would’ve really liked her, I know it.”

You gave him a soft smile. “I’m sure.” 

“Thanks for waking me up,” he said, taking your hands in his. “I really appreciate it. Gods, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

“Me neither,” you admitted.

Luke yawned, removing his hands from yours to rub his eyes. “I think I’m gonna try to go back to sleep. You should get some rest, too. We have archery practice in the morning.” 

You smirked, and his eyebrows furrowed. “I know that look. You’re planning something.”

You can’t help but smile. “You know me so well. I’m thinking that we should sneak out of camp tomorrow. We can take a day trip, just the two or us.”

Luke grinned. “That sounds amazing.” 

“Great, we’ll leave first thing in the morning.” You pivoted to climb off of the bed, but stopped when he said,

“Wait…please, stay.”

And that was how you ended up sharing a bed with Luke Castellan for the first time. 

taglist: @orionspaperwork, @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy, @marvelescvpe, @lovingjasontoddmakemewanttocry, @louweasleymalfoy, @stars4birdie, @stargurl-battleship, @daughterofthemoons-stuff

Thank you for reading! Pls let me know what you think in the comments!!!

Also, I was scrolling thru the Luke Castellan tag and noticed someone requested a fic with daughter of thanatos!reader who also had wings. It’s probably a coincidence so it’s not a big deal, I just wanted to say pls don’t plagiarize or take ideas without giving credit (only if it isn’t an original idea ofc)

Let me know in the comments if you want to be added to the taglist!

[secret-smut-sideblog]

Bloodlust

Astarion X F! Tav

18+ violence, blood play, blood drinking (duh), sub/dom, (consensual) restraint, safe words, edging, oral (m!), masturbation (f!), p-in-v, voyuerism if you squint, porn w/o plot

my thesis is that Astarion gets extremely turned on watching Tav fight. no more quastion. 👍

-

Tav was always good. Painfully good. It annoyed him to no end, truthfully. Resisted rolling his eyes when she offered her untethered aid to some stranger again. Even refusing their coin! Foolish.

There was no wicked bone in her it seemed. Except..

During battle her body, well. Responded.

Back foot sliding to face out, graceful. Instinctively setting to a deep crouch, itching to pounce. Arm raised, shoulders rippling, the flash of double blades. Hands twitching, eager, the hilts he knew hot with her.

The first time he saw it he was intrigued. Our sweet fearless leader, this excited to draw blood? My, my...

But now it tormented him. The more times they fought together the stronger the hold. Came to him in small hours of the night. Teasing at the corners of his mind as he watched her wipe the blood from her face. Incessant.

When she had invited him to go with her on a mission to take down some cultists stalking near camp he drawled some quip, something flippant but agreeable. Hid the quiver of excitement in his voice.

Now at the precipice of conflict with those unfortunate cultists he saw it again. The flash in her eyes. The mistake that these men didnt even know they had made.

"Step away. Now." She commanded, hand already poised excited over her shoulder. "Before things get real messy."

He heard the almost imperceptible pant in her voice. His throat dry, watching. Waiting on bated breath. Take the bait. Take it, idiot. Walk right into her bloodlust.

The man laughed, pulling his dagger. "Oh sweetheart, we're going to rip you apart."

Her heel dug into the ground, released her singing blades from her back in twin arcs.

"I was hoping you'd say that."

He had never heard her voice her anticipation before, letting her resolve fade in his presence. It made him shiver.

He poised his own weapons, ready to aid her. But knew she wouldn't need it. Just three men? They'd be ribbons in mere moments.

She thrummed with energy, watching her prey. Waiting, coiled to strike.

Knew the fool would come to her easy. A siren call.

Of course he did. Predictably he shot forward, blade seeking to strike. Fast, but not nearly fast enough.

Her eyes lit, a wide smile smearing her face. Too easy. Her blades danced through him and his companions, a vicious pirouette. Hitting an artery, a wave of blood striking against her chest and neck.

The man groaned and gripped surprised at his body, staggered. Looked in shock at the already dead men next to him. Too slow, Astarion thought gleefully, seeing her spin onto her hands. His favorite acrobatics; lethal.

Thighs wrapping around the mans middle her momentum wrenched him to the ground, a cry of victory in her throat. With one smooth motion she rose her blade and plunged it deep into his chest. Her own chest heaving in what untrained eyes would think adrenaline, but he knew. He knew.

His breath was moving strained, eyes dark. The blood splatter poetry on her skin.

She sat back on the dead mans chest, satisfied, slowly pulling her sword out. The gore sliding down the steel.

She looked into Astarion's eyes then, his dead heart phantom racing in his chest. Holding his gaze hostage she licked the blood in one long stroke up her blade.

Gods. A throb in his pelvis. Realized suddenly that he was hard.

She was putting on a show for him.

Grabbing his collar, she so slowly pulled his face down level to hers. She paused, eyes blown wide with lust.

He was enthralled, tingling in anticipation.

She rose onto her knees and slid her feverish mouth against his with a moan. Hand pushing into his hair. Moving so slow against him. Savoring.

There was a heat to her, a building coil. Dizzy with it, he melded into her. The overwhelming scent of the blood splatter making him groan into her mouth. Velvet tongue dancing across his teeth, asking for entrance. Needing no further invitation he obliged.

She pushed all the blood she had been holding in her mouth into his.

A groan deep in his chest he drank it, lapped it from her. The taste of her mingled through.

Gods, the degeneracy of it all.

The fingers tracing his jaw drawing a line of need. Could feel her smiling into him. Her hand grabbing his waist, pulling him flush to her.

Directed his mouth to the carnage trailing down her front. The heat of her skin was divine, sucking and licking at the trail. Leaving hard bites as he went. Her little whimpers a flint striking.

Pulling him in perfect agility she flipped them both to the ground. He dove on top of her, pushing one wrist to the ground. She arched up at him, a growl in her throat. Not going down without a fight.

Oh he was enjoying this too much. Smiled down at her, a feral glint in his eyes. Saw it matched in hers.

"Now darling, use our words." He purred into her ear.

She chuckled low into his, a warning. Of course he fell into her trap. Too easy.

The pythons of her legs wrapped around his waist, snaring down. Hand cradling the back of his head she suckled at his lobe, nipping and teasing.

A loud moan left him, buckling into her. "Fuck," he groaned, despite himself.

"I thought," Bite. "You wanted." Bite. "To use your words."

Evil. Evil woman. Gods he was going mad.

"You wicked thing," He panted, pulling her wrist above her head, his leverage. Unbusy hand pulling the laces of her tunic apart fast as he could. Fingers a blur.

Her breasts springing free he trailed his knuckles light in a circle around her peak. She gasped against him, releasing. There. He grinned wickedly.

Turning her wrist sideways she slipped out of his grasp, hand darting out. Relaxed her strong thighs just enough to let her hand through the gap. Cupping him over his leathers.

An undignified groan left him, his traitorous hips pushing into her. His body always too responsive to her.

Taking her advantage she rose up, thighs still gripping and flipped him onto his back. A gasp pushed out of him as he met the ground, getting even harder if that was possible. He would never admit how much her manhandling turned him on, that only she was trusted enough to treat him this way. Gods it made his knees weak.

Staring up at her now, the curve of her hip, the roundness of her breasts, the ripple of muscle in her lithe shoulders. Hand still softly, tortuously, stroking outside his clothes. A diabolic smile on her sweet face.

Leaned down to him, her face hovering above his. Just far enough away to escape his lips. Planted one hand on his sternum, a gentle hold. Plunged her hand into his small clothes.

He groaned, chest rising against her flat hand. Hand reaching desperate to release himself. Her knees moved, corralling his hand against his thigh, loose enough that he could move free if he liked. The restraint making him pant.

She yanked the front of his leathers open with a few pulls, the force making his hips rise. A soft hiss as he was finally free, the sudden cold night air a shock.

She paused then, hand hovering. Looked in his eyes. "Safety word, Star." Tone soft through the depth of lust.

"Waterdeep."

She laughed, low and steady. "Wet blanket it is," Gods how he adored her.

Hand still planted on his chest she slid down, thighs now around his calves. Pulled his tunic free, pushing it up his chest. Hot breath against the line of his hips. Could feel the muscles there pulling tight in anticipation.

Molten tongue dragging up those lines, a groan deep in her throat. His hips bucked with a whine, free hand tangling in her hair. Her touch lighting him up, supernova.

Wandering fingers trailing up his chest. Tongue darting out to draw hard circles on his tip. Fingers lightly pinching his nipple.

"Oh Gods" He breathed, hips straining to stay down. Taking in a gulping breath of air, the excessive miasma of blood not helping.

"More?" She asked, looking up at him. Not hiding the wicked smile dancing the corner of her lips.

"Yes! Please.." He breathed, the need apparent in his shaky voice.

In one swift motion she took him entirely into her mouth. His eyes screwed shut, head tilted back violently. A loud strangled moan from his throat.

She began her onslaught, her pace dangerously slow. Tongue expertly pressing, pulsing. An inferno of pressure, vibrations of her groaning against him.

Little pants left him in time with her devotion. Speeding up then slowing, pulling him back and forth from the edge. Hips squirming, already feeling the pressure building to no return. The slow pace making it worse.

"Tav," He warned, hand pulling gently against her hair. She nodded against him, her mouth mercifully releasing, hand taking up the mantle. Pulling her leggings down swiftly. The raw need in her eyes making his belly flip.

Her arousal at putting him in these compromising situations never failed to amaze him. That his enjoyment alone caused the slick now dripping between her thighs.

Planting her hand on his belly she lined herself up, chest heaving in anticipation.

"Hands behind your back, lovely." She breathed, pausing at the precipice.

He complied, pinning his hands under his lower back. Already throbbing against her hand.

"Perfect," She smiled, his chest tingling.

Lowering herself onto him her eyes hitched closed, a low moan as he slowly filled her. Already gripping him, drenching his pelvis as her slick pushed out.

His hands intertwined under him, needing the grounding. "Hells below," He groaned.

Her eyes caught his, a wide smile. She paused, straddling him inside her. One hand trailing up to her breast, the other down to her core. "Eyes on me."

As if he could look away, the thirst for her never sated.

Beginning her ride, hips rolling, her eyes held his. A little moan, her hand pinching her nipple. Fingers teasing above her mound.

Enthralled he watched, his building pleasure a heavy mist clouding. Focusing on not letting his eyes roll into the back of his head.

She panted and rolled against him, her body a delicous wave. The line of her hip curving as she came down. The arch of her ribcage as she rose up. The taut in her thighs as she lowered. Hypnotic.

"Beautiful," He whispered, almost to himself.

She bit her lip at his voice, the need in her eyes again. Her pace quickening, her hips coming down harder.

Hand now drawing circles on her clit, eyes closing. The arch of her movement a pulling riptide. She was blissfully close he could tell, his end barrelling towards him.

But she wasn't done with him yet, oh never. Still riding him she pulled the dagger from her side, drug it hard against her two fingertips. His breath quivered as she held them above his lips, right under his nose.

The scent overflowed into the back of his throat, a deep growl. His lips parted eagerly.

She traced his bottom lip with her thumb, the skin singing. One, two drops dripping into his open mouth. His throat already trying to swallow.

As soon as her two fingers slipped inside he was clamped down, tongue pulsing and pulling. Urging. Pleading. Her hot blood muffling his moan.

Her eyes screwed shut, breath a loud pant, face cringing in pleasure. The rolling now a frenzied grind. Could feel the beginning of her clenching.

"Oh fuck, oh-," She mewled, the bow breaking. A garbled cry as she threw her head back. He braced himself, knowing the storm that was about to hit him.

Her cunt a creamy pulsing vice grip around him as the waves hit. His hands gripping eachother in desperation, the pleasure merciless. He couldnt come, not yet.

Seeing his plight through her rapture she pulled her fingers from his mouth, positioning her wrist in its place.

As he bit down viciously, a command. "Come."

A strike of lightning against the back of his skull, a mighty pull from his abdomen. The dual hits making him writhe and twist beneath her. His hands gripping the ground, eyes rolling back. His gulping swallows muffling the whimpering scream of pleasure. Her hips still grinding into him, pulling every thread of his orgasm out of him. His back arched, biting down again into her wrist. Reaching the edge of madness.

He tapped her wrist twice, a request. She obliged, stopping her hips. The overstimulation winding down.

His limbs rubber, his body a puddle, he slowly drank. Regaining precious strength.

She leaned forward, resting her arm on his chest, belly to belly. Laying her head in the curve of her arm, watching him tenderly.

"And the cultists didnt even get to watch.."

He snorted a laugh against her wrist, spraying a few blood droplets.

Oh he was terribly infatuated with her.

~

[dollfaceksj]

you said you want to keep toapp going for as long as you can so i have a feeling it’s clearly not their last time. plus, where’s yoongi?!?

yoongi has been summoned. #19 lets go ↓

warnings: i wanted to add more stuff to the camping trip like a hiking scene and whatnot but honestly im so over the camping trip arc i just wanna get it over with so this is pretty rushed 😭

taste of a poison paradise | jjk (m) #19

masterlist

<- previous ; next ->

you stir

and awaken

why are you so? warm?

oh

you are

cuddled up into jungkook

your back into his chest

his arm around your waist

his nose buried in your hair

you glance over your shoulder

jungkook is still sound asleep

he looks

cute :(

you glance at your phone, it’s 7am. it you and jungkook’s turn to prepare breakfast

you gently shake him

“jungkook,” you say, “wake up.”

he stirs and then turns on his back

rubbing his face

he mumbles, “sorry.”

you shake your head. “it’s okay, i just want to wake you up for breakfast. it’s our turn to prepare.”

he nods his head and sits up, running a hand through his disheveled hair

you crawl out of the tent and stretch your limbs, yawning loudly before you go wash up

he slowly follows you out and you both start preparing breakfast in silence

the air is

tense?

awkward?

weird?

you don’t know what it is

but you don’t really speak to jungkook and he doesn’t speak to you while you both prepare

maybe it’s for the best

:/

about half an hour later, breakfast is ready and you take your time gathering your clothes to head into the bathhouse about 20 mins further

you have to wait for everyone to finish eating cause you can’t drive and someone needs to bring you

you watch as the seats around the table starts filling up

and you take your seat next to yoongi

he pours orange juice into your cup and rubs your shoulder. “how’d you sleep?”

you smile at the question. “i slept pretty well. you?”

“hoseok only punched me once in the mouth so i’d say i slept better too.”

you giggle at his joke and slap his thigh under the table

“hey uh,” he starts, “when we get back home..”

you tilt your head once he trails off, he sounds hesitant

he continues, “will you let me take you out?”

wow

ah

AAAAA

need him rn.

you smile. “like? on a date?”

he chuckles and shakes his head at your silliness. “yeah, like on a date.”

you pretend to hum in thought. “i thought we weren’t anything serious,” you tease.

he nods his head. “you’re right, but i think it’s proper manners to buy a lady a meal before we,” he pauses and glances at you, “get to the not-serious stuff.”

oh

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

okay!

well.

you lick your lips and chew on the loose flesh on your lips.

“so? what do you say?” he asks without even looking at you as he pours himself orange juice and reaches across the table for something to eat

he’s so

nonchalant

fuck

“i say that i’d like that.”

a smile tugs on his lips as he listens to your words, still not looking at you and it makes him look so fucking cocky

he asks; “do you have class tomorrow?”

“until 12pm.”

“good. i’ll pick you up at 6.”

ah

ahhhh

AHHHHHHH

so

….

he’s so….

hmmmm

you sheepishly reply, “okay.”

he keeps his hand respectfully on your knee, not moving it an inch toward your thigh

but it still raises goosebumps on your skin

his big hand

he’s so perfect wow

you bring your attention back to your plate and raise your cup to your lips

you hum in content

you let your eyes roam over the rim of your cup

only to make eye contact

with jungkook.

you feel a bit

uncomfortable.

he’s staring very… intensely.

did he hear everything?

it almost makes you choke on your juice

ugh it’s just breakfast and the days already wearing down on you

just… make the most of it

hours have passed, you’ve done a few more activities with the group

it’s time to head home

you’ve been hanging with yoongi, getting to know him better

isabella and hyunjoo have been stuck to jungkook since breakfast

not that you care

as long as he gets that affection he so desperately seeks

joon begins, “so we’ve decided to just send everyones luggage back home in seokjins car. we’re gonna need an extra person with him cause we can’t trust seokjin too much.”

“hey! i’m responsible,” seokjin replies in a disapproving tone

everyone just ignores seokjin’s outburst. “who’s gonna drive back home with seokjin-hyung?” joon asks as everyone disassembles their tents

everyones looking around

but you suddenly hear

an all too familiar voice

speak up

“i think yoongi-hyung should go.”

what the fuck jungkook

OH GOD

yoongi turns surprised to jungkook and jungkook is just staring back head-on

this damn junior and his lack of respects for seniors!!!

“i just think he’s the most responsible of us all.” he says as he shrugs his shoulders.

you glare at the side of jungkook’s face but it seems like people are starting to agree with him

“alright, i’ll go.” yoongi doesn’t make a fuss and without hesitation starts loading the bags into seokjin’s trunk

you keep glaring at jungkook’s cheek until he turns to look at you

he stares at you without a word on his lips for you and then turns on his heels and walks away from you

walking to go disassemble his tent

you snatch your suitcase and head towards yoongi, handing it to him

“you gonna be fine without me?” yoongi asks as he takes your suitcase and stuffs it in the trunk

you shake your head. “how will i live?”

he chuckles at your joke and then turns to you, reaching out to smooth out the scrunch between your brows with his thumb

“you’re too pretty to walk around with a frown like that.”

ugh

pretty

pretty.

now another’s man’s words keep clouding your mind

playing on a repeat

the image of his black eyes staring into your soul flashing vividly in your mind

‘you can take it, pretty. can’t you?’

‘that’s it, pretty. look at you.’

‘fuck yourself on my dick, pretty. just like that.’

ughhhh

that damn junior corrupted your brains. you need to be cleansed.

“that’s because i’m actually serious. i was looking forward to the train ride back with you.” you continue to pout

he chuckles and reaches out to rub your bottom lip with his thumb

“don’t look at me like that,” he quietly says

again…

something jungkook has said to you too

:///

“like what?”

“like you want me to kiss you.”

he’s

so

you reply, “that’s because i do.”

he licks his lips and rolls his tongue against the inside of his cheek

he respectfully places his hand on your waist and pulls you closer to him, closing the distance

your hands instantly meet his arms, squeezing his biceps

he cups the back of your head and inches closer to your face until he’s pressed his lips against yours

and you fucking melt

his lips are so damn soft like you could write a novel about it

you move your hands to his chest and rub it gently, wanting to feel more of him

he parts from your lips and brings his thumb up to stroke over your bottom lip

“pout is gone.”

and with that, he turns his attention back to loading the car

fuck

ah fuck

he’s not gonna make it easier for you

you turn on your heels to head back to the rest but you bump into something

that something being

jungkook’s chest

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

for fucks sake!!!

these coincidences are getting ANNOYING

“ow,” you mumble as you stumble back but two hands on your waist from the back and two hands on your waist from the front keep you from tumbling to the ground

oh

yoongi

and

jungkook

are both holding you

:))))

“are you okay?” yoongi immediately asks with a soothing hand still on your back

you nod your head. “yeah.”

jungkook’s hands linger on your waist and he doesn’t take them off until you shoot him a look

he slowly peels his hands off you and then stuffs his own bag in the trunk

you walk past him and gather with the others

you wave goodbye to seokjin and yoongi once they’re finished

you hope they don’t notice anything in the car you’d die of embarrassment 😭

and they could

quickly make the connection

and if word got out

and it reached taehyung…..

he’s already brought up home……

you know

where the both of u are from

fuck

just calm down

they won’t notice anything

you’re walking back to the train station with the rest

“jungkook! what are your plans for when we get back home?”

you hear isabella talking to him

but you’re walking ahead of them

walking with tae and jimin

he replies, “probably gonna play, haven’t been online in awhile. you?”

ugh

“oh! i have no plans. can i come over and watch you play?”

watch him play?

eye roll

like what does that even do

i mean sure theres a big audience for gamers that stream playing games because people enjoy watching others play

but jungkook? be serious

“oh. sure, why not?”

tae nudges you with his arm. “have you talked to him yet?” he whispers

you frown. “to who?”

he rolls his eyes. “jungkook,” he mouths.

you shake your head in response and watch him quietly sigh

ugh

you made it a whole lot more fucking complicated than it needed to be dude

why did you have to fuck him

the rest of the walk there is filled with quiet small talk and taehyung telling you about the skins he got in fortnite

once you reach the train station, hoseok checks to make sure everyone has everything in order

a few minutes later you board the train

and right

when you want to

go sit down

with jimin and tae

you’re tapped on your shoulder

by tae

“go sit with jungkook.”

????

what the hell?

“and why would i?” you question with a neutral tone to your voice

“did you forget our talk yesterday? if he only interacts with girls that he sleeps with, it’ll always stay the same for him. go talk to him.”

YOU’VE ALSO SLEPT WITH JUNGKOOK SO IT WOULDNT BE ANY FUCKING DIFFERENT!!!!

but of course you can’t tell tae that :))

because you were stupid :)

and horny :)

ugh. not to be harsh but how is jungkook’s mental state your problem?

girl.. you were the one that wanted to cuddle him yesterday. clearly you care about his mental wellbeing

you sigh and get up

and make your way to jungkook’s booth

where he’s seated

with hyunjoo and isabella

:)

jungkook’s sitting by the window

isabella is next to him

hyunjoo is across from him

so you take your seat next to hyunjoo

the girls welcome you with a kind smile and small talk

but that little shit is staring you down with such a bratty look in his eyes

what a little CUNT

what is his problem?

you need a way to get rid of the girls

you lie, “i’m here to talk about … the thing.”

jungkook frowns at you for a moment before he realizes what you’re trying to do. “oh, right. that.”

you glance at hyunjoo and isabella and then turn to jungkook. “shall we talk about it in private?”

he licks his lips and you KNOW he wants to push your buttons and tell you that you can just say it here

but to your surprise, he rises to his feet

and starts heading to another booth

you excuse yourself from the girls but they don’t seem to mind, engaging in convo on their own

you follow jungkook and sit across from him in the empty booth

you both just sit there in silence

quiet

you blink at him

and the silence drags on

for

what seems like forever

and he’s finally had enough. “is there something you want to say?”

you cross your arms over your shoulders and shrug your shoulders. “not really.”

if you tell him tae wants you to bond with jk after he always told him to stay away from you, he’ll know something is going on

he’ll know tae told you his private matters

so you just need tae to believe you’re talking w jk

he narrows his eyes at you for a moment but doesn’t question anything and then glances out the window, eyes scanning the trees that zoom by

you both sit there in silence, sometimes stealing glances at each other

it’s already been an hour

pure silence

somewhere during the trip, about an hour into it, jungkook holds his hand out

you frown

??

his hand

why is he giving you his hand

you slowly place your hand in his, back of your hand facing up

he glances at your hand and then at you, a quiet chuckle leaving his lips

he brings your hand to his mouth and gently kisses your knuckles before placing your hand back on your knee

“that was cute but i meant your phone.”

oh

OH

well how the hell!!! were u!!! supposed to know!!

you narrow your eyes at him in suspicion. “why the hell do you want my phone?”

he rolls his eyes. “stop making a fuss about every little thing and just give it to me.”

this

damn

junior

SO DISRESPECTFUL!!!!

(its kinda hot)

but he needs to be punched!!!

you dig into your pocket and pull it out

unlock it

and hand it to him

he ticks away on your phone and you just stare at him in anticipation

then he hands you back his phone

when you wrap your fingers around it and pull back, there’s resistance

jungkook won’t let your phone go

you glance up from your phone

you cock an eyebrow at him

and he’s just staring at ou

then he leans forwards

winks at you

lets go of your phone

gets up

and heads back to the booth with isabella and hyunjoo

leaving you all alone

hes so

fucking

cocky

jerk.

you look down at your phone

it’s open on instagram

??

did he just…?

‘You accepted @.jungkook97’s follow request!’

to be continued

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[sufferu]

Thinking about the Anastasia Camp in Arc 3 because holy shit, practically that entire camp was legitimately going out of its way to try and yank Subaru back to his senses and he has NO IDEA.

Julius is obvious, everyone knows at this point that his entire duel was him trying his best to prevent Subaru from getting dragged out and slaughtered in the street. But like, Anastasia did not have to go THAT FAR out of her way to try and teach Subaru a lesson. Girl literally set up the most obviously identifiable trap in the world with all of the tells perfectly aligning with the flaws she believed she saw in his character, told him to his face where he screwed up and what he needed to work on in order to not screw up next time, and then made a show of walking out as a group with all of her mercenaries just to point out the very obvious signs that the flaws she had just pointed out had prevented him from noticing. And also — someone else pointed it out, but it’s arguably implied that she only decided to do that after hearing that Subaru had picked a fight with Crusch Karsten like THREE DAYS after Julius had apparently completely failed to teach him that very necessary lesson about MINDING YOUR TONGUE. Which is just — she heard about that and went “Od Laguna that boy is legitimately going to get himself murdered ten times over if I don’t do anything to stop him isn’t he” didn’t she?

But it’s not just them because Ricardo was ALSO fucking in on it. We don’t see him until the final loop, but when we do he seeks Subaru out almost immediately and starts subtly gauging him out, seeing how he reacts to him mentioning Julius and the Royal Selection Ceremony and the White Whale and everything, clearly weighing his conclusions about Subaru’s reactions to all of that to the story he obviously heard from either Julius or Anastasia after the Incident at the ceremony. He even starts giving Subaru bits of advice because it becomes clear that Subaru is SO fucking stupid. Like, Subaru asks him what is. Probably a really racist question about whether he feels weird about riding a Liger — being a demihuman and all — and Ricardo makes a show of being very casual as he answers it by saying that “ah, well, this is an animal and I’m not, so there’s that” before moving on to basically say “word of advice: never ask anyone that again” and he does it nonchalantly enough to not make a big deal about it while also getting across that what Subaru just said could very easily be taken as an insult worth fighting over. And then he goes out of his way to save Subaru from the Whale at one point, getting his mount sliced in half and himself very seriously injured in the process.

And then to top it all off, the minute Julius sees Subaru again he gives him such an obvious test that Mimi almost ruins it by calling him out on it, in a way that very much mirrors the test Anastasia gave him in that failed loop, goading Subaru into a negotiation about Why the Anastasia Camp should continue to help them fight the Witch Cult without telling him that they were already planning on doing exactly that anyway. He even ends by nodding and saying that he’ll give Subaru’s efforts a “passing grade.”

Like, the Crusch Camp was helping Subaru a bit more explicitly — healing his gate and all — but that was very much a transactional exchange, with Crusch even explicitly stating that she will only ever help Subaru with his endeavors if there is something in it for her and her Camp. Meanwhile, for someone known as the Merchant Princess, Anastasia and her companions were being way more altruistic in their attempts to actually do Subaru some good. Aside from Rem, the Anastasia Camp may genuinely have been Subaru’s closest ally within that entire Arc, from start to end.

(Fuck, even in the IF route connected with this Arc. It might say something that Halibel is the one who houses Subaru and Rem (and even helps Subaru land a job) in Sloth:IF, considering that he’s got very strong ties to Anastasia.)

[youreallyshouldtalkmore]

That’s the Tale of It

A.N:  I still think about Tighnari oiling is tail to this day. It was just a line that you didn’t even get unless you talked to him while camping during his story arc. It was so random but important info, you know. lol So naturally I had to write a story about it. Tighnari x reader 

Genshin Impact MasterList  

---------------------------------

The two of you were newlyweds, so this was the fourth time you had seen Tighnari oil his tail, a habit he developed every night in order to remain well groomed during the day. To date, you had never asked to help him, instead observing him as you undid your own hair for the day. 

“How is it this man is even still alive?” Tighnari growled, “I have posted the ‘Guide to Avidya Forest’ on the bulletin years ago, I have gifted a copy to him several times. I have even taken time out of my precious days to educate the man, and yet he still after all these years he forgets what mushrooms to avoid? Even you, have gotten up to speed faster than that lummox! I should just stuff the mushroom down his throat and finish the job!!” 

Despite his growling over Farbod, a man who could never heed the advice of the Forest Rangers, his hands were always gentle as he smoothed and oiled his tail. 

“Hm-mm…” you murmured, your eyes on his hands. You had heard a lot about Farbod over the years, so it wasn’t like he was saying anything new. 

“Perhaps I should have you give him a crash course on what mushrooms to avoid! Maybe he’ll listen and retain it from you. You were one of my better students in this last few years. Although he swears that he doesn’t enjoy little imaginary fairies dancing before his eyes, he has gotten almost no better in all this time. On second thought, it is perhaps time to let him be….”  

“Hm-mm…” 

Tighnari glanced up at you to see that you were watching him. He blinked before looking down at his tail. Were you watching him? 

His face heated up a little as he gave a cough, “Y/N…” 

“Yeah?” To his relief, you met his eyes. 

“What do you think we should do?” His hands stopped as he looked at you. 

“Uh…” 

Tighnari’s ears twitched once, “About Farbod. Keep up.” 

“Ahh, well, since he’s a repeat offender, I’m inclined to think he likes the imaginary fairies. But I shall talk with him. If he still doesn’t heed this last warning, we’ll consider it as he likes it and let him be. You would have done all you can.” You answered, turning away from him. 

Tighnari nodded, although you didn’t see him. Sounds reasonable enough. On the other side, though, his brain was not thinking of the nuisance that was Farbod but how your eyes lingered on his hands and tails. 

Despite his fox appendices, he was not a pet to be cuddled, even though he knew most people would have loved to pet his ears or tails. He had long since gotten used to people’s eyes trailing to his ears in particular. It used to annoy him, but he found he had other things to worry about as long they didn’t go to try to touch him without permission. 

Permission he recently granted to you shortly before you were married. But that had only extended to his ears and only in private where no one could witness what a hot mess he would become in your hands. 

It was quite embarrassing to Tighnari how he would whine and sigh at your light fingertips working its way in his ears. The cautious and hard glint in his eyes would fall away, leaving him feeling extremely vulnerable. 

But you never took advantage of that, even if you liked to tease him when it was only the two of you. 

That permission did not extend to his tail. 

He had never given you leeway to touch it, and you never attempted to do so. But it just now occurred to him that, perhaps, he should have his new wife help him. 

But his face was already heating up at the prospect. 

If his ears produced such a vulnerability, how much more would his tail in your hands feel? 

“Ti, are you alright?” 

Tighnari almost jumped out of his skin at you climbing into your side of the bed. He had been sitting still for quite some time, he realized. 

“You done?” you inquired. 

Tighnari coughed once, his eyes sliding away from you. 

You peered at him in concern,“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Tighnari fought to regain his composure, “Yes, and no, I’m not done.” 

You nodded once before swiping a book from the dresser and popping it open, saying not another word. 

“Help me?” 

You were barely into a paragraph when the words filtered into your brain, making you blink and look up. Tighnari was holding the jar out towards you without looking at you. 

“I wouldn’t know, but logic dictates it would be easier for another to oil my tail. However, given that it’s invasive, I would never let just anyone touch it. But since you are my wife and mate, it has occurred to me, that you have the right to do so. So…help me?” 

It took you a minute to place the book back on the shelf and take the jar of oil. Suddenly shyness overcame you as you ducked your gaze, “Are… you sure? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” 

You felt a hand come under your chin and lift your gaze.

“I’m sure. Help me.” 

A demand, not a question this time. 

You gave a nod before he retracted his arm, and the both of you just sat there awkwardly for a minute. 

Then he turned and flopped on his stomach. “This is probably better.” He murmured. 

You weren’t sure if he was telling you or himself. 

Although you had watched him all of four times, now face with the reality, you had no idea what to do, “Ahh, what do you want me to do?” 

“Ahh, right.” Tighnari propped himself on his elbow, realizing that he held the small comb in his hand. He handed it to you, “Just rubbed some of the essential oil on your hand and use this to work out any kinks. It’s really like the hair on your head, at the end of the day.” 

You took the comb without looking at him, and his own eyes were elsewhere. He was quite happy, his voice did not waver as he gave an explanation. 

Why were your fingers trembling? You managed to rub some oil between them before cautiously running your hand through his tail. You weren’t sure where he already applied and hopefully he would say something if you were doing it wrong. 

You managed to imitate the way you have seen him attend to his tail, before running the comb through it. Then you move onto the next section. 

Your fingers were warm and gentle as they continued. You did not do unnecessary pulling and were quite adapt at untangling the knots that got worked into it from daily life. 

It was quite a calming affair making Tighnari’s eyes flutter. 

Strangly, he suddenly found himself wanting to fall asleep. While oiling his tail himself was quite meditating, it never felt as good as the way you were doing. You were taking quite a bit of care. Perhaps a bit too much, but he could feel your hands becoming steadier the longer you worked. 

Tighnari’s ears twitched, “It took me several years to get the correct consistency of the herbs to make the oil I use today. I have made a cream format before, but I don’t like the way my tail stuck together, and it looked unbecoming. It must maintain a glossy shine, which is why I prefer the oil.” 

“Is there a Sumeru Rose in this?” you asked. You swore you detected it slightly. 

“Very good! Very good! Yes, a Sumeru Rose is one of the ingredients. I once tried to use mint, as it’s in abundance like a common weed, but….that might have had a number of side effects I do not like. And I’m not particular on the smell.”

You ran the comb though detangling a knot, making him sigh in bliss, giving an involuntary hum. 

Your hand stilled at the new sound from your new husband. 

Tighnari realized that he had produced a kind of mewling sound. He was glad his face was away from you. He coughed and used his tail to give you a light smack in the face, “Continue….” 

“Ahh, sure…” you giggled. His tail was really soft and bushy. 

But really, why did you your hands have to feel that good in his tail? He hadn’t even dreamt how nice it would feel to have you do this for him. However, his eyes popped open when you got closer to the base of his tail. 

Feeling the shift, you retracted your hands, “Sorry!” 

“Ahh, no. It’s fine. Please continue.” Tighnari spoke. 

“Ti, you don’t have to force yourself.” 

Tighnari turned his head to look up at you then, “Trust me, I wouldn’t. It just startled me. Continue…” 

“Let me know if I hurt you, okay?” You were serous about this as you looked down at him. 

He nodded once, and you reached back up to continue your administrations while he turned his face to the other side.  A comfortable silence reigned as you finished up. 

When you considered yourself done, you sat back and spoke, “How is that?” 

There was a beat or two before you got a response, “You practically put me to sleep. Are you sure you were never trained as a masseuse?” 

“No way….” you laughed, “Though I’m glad it was satisfactory.” You screwed the top back on the oil jar before turning and putting it and the comb on the dresser.

When you turned back, you found yourself laying flat on your back with Tighnari looking down at you. 

You practically put him to sleep, he said? 

So why was he looking down at you like a predator hunting his prey. 

Quite wide awake if you ask me! 

You gulped. 

Was your massage that good? 

“I’m quite curious now.” 

When Tighnari said nothing else but look down at you, you realize he was waiting for your response, “About?” 

“You have handled my tail, quite well. Better than I expect for your first time. But now I’m wondering about your masseuse talent, that I’m just now discovering.” His voice was slow as he continued, “I’m wondering what else you could massage quite as well.” 

Your eyes widened once before, your eyes darted all over, not meeting his gaze. 

But Tighnari continued, “I believe an experiment is the only way, we will learn these things. How well can you massage….” 

In retaliation, you reached up and ran a hand up and down the base of his ears, making his voice falter. His brown-green eyes melted at your touch. 

“Yes, we are aware of that particular area.” He murmured, “But I have in mind some other experiments.” 

You giggled, “Do you now?” 

Tighnari gave a wicked smirk, “Indeed. Now, let us began…..” 

And then his lips descended upon yours. 

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Still Subject to Change Chapter 10 (NEW)

——————————————————————————-

Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

I shifted a bit so he could see it and pointed to the pale mark on the back of my shoulder blades illuminated by the red fire, giving it a strange orange glow.

“How did you get that one??? What happened?”

He was back to his blubbery old self, damaged tooth forgotten for now at the sight of the pale line on my back.

“Well one time a guard almost got me, but i was a bit faster than him, and as i turned a corner i was suddenly bleeding from my back, Then I looked over my shoulder and apparently that guy just fucking threw his sword at me”

“Wait what? that's so dumb though, why would anyone throw their weapon like this?”

I shook my head at him as i didn't know why someone would do that either, it was a bad idea really, Why risk losing an expensive weapon?

But that was in the past and didn't matter now, I was just glad that I had no other lasting damage other than the scar.

“Whatever, it's late we should sleep like Rikaad said”

I shifted a bit over to flatter ground and flicked some rocks away so I could lay there without having sharp things poke me all the time.

Shifting to lay on my side and facing the fire I settled down for sleep.

Feeling something move at my chest area I looked down to see Robin curling up next to my thorax, probably trying to steal some warmth.

He looked like a kitten next to me and curling up like this didn't help to get rid of the mental image, so I just left him lying there and put my arm as a barrier between the forest and him.

Having him die while he was lying next to me would be rather traumatizing, not to mention if something were to get this close it would probably try to kill me too.

Settling down completely on the ground I closed my eyes and fell asleep basically trying to get as much sleep as I could before I had to take my watch shift.

Having expected to be woken up in the middle of the night by Rikaad to watch the camp i was surprised to find that when i awoke it was already morning.

I looked around confusedly and the first thing i saw was Robin still curled up next to me and fast asleep, The second thing I saw was Rikaad sitting next to my shirt and fiddling with the fabric, what was he doing?

“Rikaad? Why are you messing with my shirt? I only have one you better not destroy it”

I was still a bit sleepy and with Robin half leaning half lying on me I didn't want to move.

“I am not messing with it, i'm just repairing small holes so they don't tear”

He spoke quietly and focused back on his task.

It was weird, this was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me, so I better never tell him that I stole it from a clothesline a few months ago.

I was still a bit befuddled at the fact that i hadn't been woken up for a watch shift but looking closer at Rikaad he had bags under his eyes but somehow still moved like a man wide awake.

“Have you slept? Nobody woke me up for my shift watching, don't tell me you were awake the entire night”

He shook his head and continued patching up my shirt.

“I couldn't, not with Arthur still back there, so i started doing this instead, but i do hope that we can come up with a plan to get Arthur back today”

Now I felt a bit guilty, I knew Arthur wasn't captive anymore and actually fine if probably quite disgusted at what had happened.

I was glad that today we would backtrack a tiny bit and meet him somewhere in the woods.

I really hoped he would never tell anyone that i ate him but i couldn't realistically expect that it would stay a secret forever.

So bringing them back to Kamerasca and then leaving would be the best option as much as being alone again pained me.

“Done, try seeing if the stitches hold when you put it on”

He held a corner of the cloth in my direction and I tried to take it without waking Robin who was still snuggled up to me.

Sadly I was unsuccessful and he woke up, blinking owlishly against the morning light and flopping onto his back.

“Ugh, morning”

While Robin complained about the sun I put my newly fixed shirt back on and was happy to find that all the tears were expertly fixed, even the ones I had tried fixing had been redone.

He really was surprisingly good at this, Robin hadn't been kidding.

Standing up I just put some dirt over the still smoldering remains of the fire, I didn't want to cause a forest fire after all.

“So what is the plan? Just backtrack and see what we can do?”

Rikaad stood up and put his sewing supplies away.

“Ideally we will know what to do before we get there, but yes for now we backtrack and try to figure it out on the way”

Robin immediately came up to me, looking at me with wide eyes, holding his arms up as a signal that he wanted to be picked up again.

Obliging, I cupped him to my chest and started to walk after Rikaad the way we came from yesterday, all the while on the lookout for Arthur.

I could hear Rikaad quietly mumbling to himself, likely trying to come up with a plan even if I knew it was unnecessary.

He didn't know that Arthur was fine after all, and I couldn't tell him, but he'd see soon enough that Arthur was fine.

I hoped.

There was the possibility that he had gotten lost in the dark or been attacked by another manticore.

Shaking such thoughts out of my head I continued to trail after the dark haired human in front of me.

It was funny, his almost black hair and well toned skin let him blend in near perfectly into his surroundings.

I was really glad that he chose not to kill me when we first met, which is also another reason why I couldn't tell him about the pouch.

I was worried he'd change his mind on letting me live, I somehow didn't doubt he'd actually find a way to end me.

Lazily walking through the underbrush after him I kept my eyes open for any sign of Arthur, or worse.

I wasn't sure that the Maringand Guard had given up yet on following us and I hoped I didn't have to find out.

Hearing something snap up ahead my muscles tensed, ready to defend myself before hearing a loud shout.

“FUCK”

That was Arthur's voice!

He was right up ahead and yelling at something.

I hoped he wasn't in trouble but before I could react Rikaad had already pelted over the ground in the direction of Arthur, hands on his sword.

“Rikaad wait! Donovan let's go!”

Robin tugged at my shirt and pointed after Rikaad and I followed a bit more cautiously, what if some of the Guards did follow us this deep into the forest?

But actually seeing Arthur was a relief, even if he had somehow managed to get seriously stuck in a thornbush and was hitting it loudly swearing with a stick.

Rikaad had already begun helping him untangle and I set Robin down who immediately tried to help too.

“ARTHUR! Are you okay? How did you get away? How did you end up in a bunch of thorns?”

Robin was babbling excitedly again while worrying for his friend.

While they tried to get him out of the thorns by shoving all of them aside I decided to pick him up, lifting him out of the thorns, and he was clinging to my fingers as he dangled over the prickly bushes.

“FUCKING- i hate plants im going to set this green hell on fire one day!”

Setting him down in front of the other two he was immediately tackled into a hug by Robin.

He looked a bit miserable, like he hadn't slept at all and being stuck in a bush didn't do him any favors whatsoever if the countless bleeding scratches were any indication.

“Im fine, im fine stop fretting about me! I just want to get as far away as possible from THAT place so can we move along now?”

He really didn't seem pleased at all and very tired, more so than Rikaad.

“How did you escape? Or did they let you go? What happened?”

Now Rikaad was the one asking questions and I nervously glanced at Arthur.

Robin however did look at me with a puzzled expression and then back at Arthur.

I twitched nervously, I hadn't taken into account that Robin could also tell about it, but when he looked back at me he winked and put a finger over his mouth.

Looking back at Arthur he was fishing some leaves out of his hair and then looked back at Rikaad.

“I escaped through sewers and no i'm not going to elaborate, it was horrible enough already lets just go”

He walked past Rikaad with his shoulders hunched over and a miserably tired expression.

Baffled Rikaad went after him and I followed, scooping Robin back into my palms and holding him against my torso.

“Arthur? You look tired, maybe you should rest? I could carry you if you want?”

At my offer he looked up at me with tired eyes seemingly taking some time to comprehend what I had said before he shook his head.

“I'm fine, I can walk by myself, let's just go as far away as possible, okay?”

He continued stubbornly walking away from Maringand and was heading towards the mountains.

Weird, I had thought we had given up on going there, well the others at least.

It was still my plan to go there after I had dropped the small humans off at Kamerasca.

The thought of being alone again hurt more and more with each passing day but I continued to ignore it, there wasn't anything I could do about it anyway.

Following him and Rikaad I made sure to not hit my head on any of the tree branches that were getting denser the closer we got to the mountains.

“Donovan? Do you think he's okay?”

Robin whispered from my hands trying to get as close to my ears as possible without falling over.

“I think so? he said he was at least, i'm sure hes just tired and grumpy, you said yourself he's a grumpy man so i think he's okay”

He didn't look entirely convinced but sat back down into my palms, lounging lazily against my fingers and watching the ground beneath him.

“So wait a second, Where do we go now exactly? I thought we would be going back home and not to the mountains?”

Robin did have a point in that, I wasn't sure what route exactly the others wanted to go but I was pretty sure that Kamerasca wasn't in that direction.

“Well since we don't really know where we are and which direction to go to it might actually be a good idea going somewhere higher up to plan a new route, lest we end up in a different part of Maringand instead of Kamerasca”

Rikaad admitting that we were kind of lost wasn't what I expected to hear, but at least he was honest about it.

“So we are going to go higher up and see if we can find the way home like that? Are you sure about that? I thought the mountains were dangerous?”

Robin was now clinging to my fingers again, he was probably a bit scared of the mountains from all the rumors there were in Kamerasca about them.

“It'll be fine if something does show up i'll just kick it as hard as i can”

I tried to reassure him while still trailing after Arthur and Rikaad.

Rikaad was trying to get Arthur to stop for a second so he could assess his wounds, which consisted of multiple scratches and a possibly broken nose.

Arthur ignored it and just kept stomping forward and I sort of expected him to collapse at any moment now.

It was weird, for him to be this tired he really must have been awake the entire night and who knew how long he had been stuck in those thorns.

Rikaad suddenly turned to me motioning for me to lean down.

“Can you help me for a second? I want to make sure all those scratches are clean, we can't risk an infection out here and he is being stubborn, so could you pick him up for a bit?”

Nodding and setting Robin next to him on the ground I went over to Arthur and Picked him up.

Immediately he began weakly cursing and tried to kick my fingers, sitting down next to Rikaad I held the angrily twitching form of Arthur in front of him.

“Calm down, I just want to make sure those cuts don't get infected, you said yourself you escaped through sewers right? I don't think a river bath is going to get rid of all of the nastiness from that so keep still and let us help”

Arthur went still at this, seemingly only now realizing that the story he had told would mean that he had crawled through some Nasty stuff.

“Ugh fine but i still want to put as many miles between myself and Maringand, at least i didn't have to swim in that stuff so just get it over with”

He went limp and I carefully set him on the ground where we apparently now made an impromptu camp in the middle of the day.

Robin somehow had found a lot of dry branches and was putting them together in a heap to make a fire while Rikaad pulled a metal cup from somewhere and instructed Robin to go fill it with water at the river.

While Robin did that Rikaad inspected Arthur's broken nose and dabbed the dirt away with a small Piece of cloth, much to the protest of Arthur who flinched every time it touched his nose.

I feel kind of useless right now. 

I was too big to properly help while Robin could go get water and Rikaad was able to take care of Arthur's wounds, and I was just sitting here next to them completely unable to do anything helpful.

It sucked, it was really dumb that I had been struck by this stupid curse, and it felt more and more tempting to just try and yank it off even if I destroyed my hand in the process.

But there was no guarantee that just ripping it off my wrist with force would actually break the curse.

I might just stay a giant, but then with only one working hand which Honestly was even worse.

Since I couldn't help the smaller men I instead went to be on the lookout for anything that would come near us.

At least i could help by making sure no uninvited beings showed up, The last we needed right now was another Manticore thinking it could snatch up a human.

Luckily the only thing that came from the forest was Robin with the water which he put on the fire Rikaad had made in the meantime.

Seeing them move as a unit like this to help Arthur I felt kind of…jealous? No that wasn't it, it wasn't jealousy more like..envy.

I envied them for the fact that they had someone to rely on when they needed it, and I envied them for not having to be alone all the time.

I envied them for being human with human friends, something I could never have as a Bastard.

I hated myself for being the son of an Elven man and Human woman.

I sort of wished that my mother had never met the pointy eared man that promised her the world, and then ditched her as soon as he could when he found out that she was pregnant.

Well, lamenting about a past I couldn't change wasn't going to help anything, and at least my mother stuck around as long as she could before dying of typhoid.

Watching the small men patch up Arthur was even a bit endearing, they did their best with whatever supplies they had while Arthur looked close to nodding off after probably spending the entire night awake.

After some time they had patched him up as god as they could and put all of their stuff away.

Leaning down again after they were finally done I put my hand down on the ground as I was sure Robin would want to be carried again.

But instead of Robin climbing on Rikaad dragged a tired looking Arthur over to me.

“Does the offer of carrying him still stand? I think he might fall asleep standing up at this point”

I nodded and very carefully let Rikaad drag the at this point half asleep Arthur into my hands.

He really must have not slept at all since i had sent him off downstream, Rikaad hadn't either but he seemed to be fine aside from some darker circles under his eyes, he really was the scariest out of the three.

Cupping the tired form of the small human closer to my chest I started walking after the other two small men again.

The mountains did look a lot closer now than before our Capture and I hoped once there we could see which way to take to get them back to Kamerasca.

Until then though I would do my best to be helpful, and for now that meant carrying a sleepy and bruised Arthur while the other two led the way.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was now two days after we escaped from Maringand and Arthur had almost completely healed aside from a slightly crooked nose and the obvious bruising.

He also had kept his word about not telling Rikaad about how he actually escaped, which I was glad about.

We had gotten a lot closer to the mountain in the time we had walked even if i still thought that if i carried all of them it would have been faster but so far the only one that had never actually willingly climbed into my hands was Rikaad, and he made no sign of ever wanting to do that.

It was fine that he didn’t, I just wish walking after them didn't feel so awfully slow.

It did make sense that i was able to walk a lot faster than they were seeing as my legs were taller than them, none of the humans even reached up to my knees.

At the very least we were now very close to the mountains and I could see Wyrmhurst mountain in front of me, only a few minutes walk away and I realized for the first time how steep it actually was.

I marveled at the fact that something Steeper than a barn roof didn't just collapse in itself, which also presented the question how the fuck anyone was supposed to climb this thing.

The narrow woods surrounding us weren't any help either as I got stuck more and more often in the branches as the trees got bigger the farther we traveled and Rikaad had to patch my shirt twice now.

In short, this sucked, a lot.

We probably would have to go around it a bit to see if there were any less dangerous places to climb.

But maybe we got lucky and the first place we found was at least somewhat climbable.

Expecting either more Forest or just a wall of stone, I was surprised that we suddenly emerged in a little clearing that had a big Oak Tree stump that went up to be over my head, and surprisingly an askew hut that had been directly embedded into the cliffside of the mountain.

Judging by the smoke coming out of one of the three chimneys it was even inhabited.

“Who the fuck would live out here of all things?”

Arthur had apparently seen the smoke too, and I did have to give him right on this, This was out in a Forest that was widely regarded as dangerous and deadly as proven by the fact that I had to fight off at least three more manticores in the two days we had traveled.

At least most of the Wildlife left us alone due to my size but it was still annoying, and mosquitoes did not care how big I was so they were the major annoyance anyway.

But it was still strange why someone would live out here of all places.

“No idea maybe they got banished or something, i think we should just leave it alone”

I really didn't want to mess with someone that had survived out here, human sized no less as indicated by the hut.

If someone could survive out here they probably had a lot of skill and I wanted to keep my hide intact a bit longer.

I didn't want to walk backwards in case one of the humans was right behind me so instead I turned my head around to scout the area, Rikaad doing the same, trying to figure out where to go to not intrude in this place.

Suddenly I heard an unknown voice from somewhere above me and I looked around to locate it.

“What do we have here? Humans? This far out and traveling with an Ardua no less, how strange”

I could not find where the voice was coming from, it sounded like it was above me somewhere between two big trees and I hoped that I was still the only giant here.

I didn't know if I could fend off an actual one and I'd rather not test that.

And what the hell was the voice even talking about? The human comment made sense but the rest not so much.

Feeling Robin hide behind my leg I decided to respond to the voice and see if it was hostile or not.

“Who are you? What do you mean by that? And where are you? I don't like talking to disembodied voices”

The other two humans had also shifted to stand closer to me, likely not wanting to suddenly find themselves face to face with a possibly hostile being.

“You can call me Oakley, and I'm right here, you have to look up to the tree young Ardua, i'm right in front of you on one of the branches”

Hearing the voice who introduced itself as Oakley say that they were in the tree in front of me, I tried my best to actually find them, but I couldn't make out anything.

It seemed even the others couldn't see anything either judging by Robin's reaction.

“I can't see anything? Are you sure that you are there? Or are you messing with us?”

“Look again”

This time I could actually make something out, but only because it was moving, having blended in perfectly before due to standing absolutely still.

The figure that showed itself was wearing a dark green patterned cloak that hid most of their other features.

But I could make out the Pointiest ears I had ever seen poking out from between hair that had the color of oak bark, and strangely bent legs with weird birdlike feet that had two of their toes bent backwards to grip the branch the figure was sitting on better.

After a second I could also make out a sort of tail swaying behind them that was split into two at the last part showing that their skin was the color of Stripped oak wood.

If they had not moved I would never have been able to tell that they were there.

PREVIOUS / NEXT / OVERSIGHT

[tired-reader-writer]

Additional 131 Thoughts

I've been rereading the chapter over and over (and staring at that last page...) so I figured I'd make a small post in addition to the one I'd already made!

This panel, man. It looks big because I zoomed it wayyyyyyy in, but in truth the panel is small, and so are Arslan and Andragoras. It almost doesn't feel real, such a small farewell for so large a man...

Okay I think I have a legitimately hard time telling what exactly makes Arslan's standard differ from the rest— it's all Kaykhusraw's head everywhere in every camp so I don't know what distinguishes this as Arslan's specifically? Maybe it's less the contents and more... the flag shape and size? Maybe?

We don't see crests anymore in the manga I don't think— there was the Sindhuran brothers in the Sindhura arc, there were blink-and-you-miss-it instances of Guiscard and Hilmes' crests in the earlier chapters, and I feel like this could've been a good opportunity to showcase Arslan's crest but I guess not?

Cute panel! Love the face Ashim is making, it's so funny. If you'll remember, Ashim (the one pulling a face) and Bolna (the tiniest one on the left) were the ones who wanted to beat Estelle up in chapter 1, lol. Kirs (tall one) was trying to dissuade them from doing so. Seems like Ashim still got some spunk in him, though Bolna seems to have mellowed out a bit. Cute.

[kimberlyannharts]

actually I would love a rant about how JJ sucks as a character

Merry early Christmas to you then, Anon!

Like I think what makes everyone clutching their pearls over the sanctity of JJ’s character and place in the canon so ridiculous is he is barely a character in the first place.  He is a plot device in SotD, a narrative goal for Tommy, as the story wasn’t about JJ developing into someone worthy of the Dragon Shield or even an SPD cadet - he's already done all of that. The story was about Tommy realizing he should retire and hand over his stuff already.  And you have a son who’s pretty good at being a ranger, so……….he should take it!  Great!  That’s it. I genuinely don't know why they didn't do some kind of Goofy Movie-esque father/son journey together, especially if you really wanted to discuss this idea of him feeling like he's in his dad's shadow. His existence in the show amounts to namedrops and one voiceover line in the Ninja Steel special, and the only bits of characterization these amount to are he’s a kid who goes to karate camp.  To me it comes off like people are attached more to JJ’s POTENTIAL as a character rather than HIMSELF as a character, in like a “well, maybe one day they’ll give him his own book/show/whatever” sort of way, which….it’s been five years since SotD.  Hasbro is gearing up to do a reboot and even then, as we’ve talked about many times, they don’t want to put focus on cop characters.  Unless some stuff is getting retconned, I am not holding my breath.      

The reason I call Minh the superior legacy character by comparison is because there actually was time and space dedicated to showing how she stands out as a person and a character beyond her being Trini’s daughter; in fact, her being Trini’s daughter is the least interesting part about her (in no small part because Trini herself was handled very badly by that special.)  What makes her interesting is her personality, her relationship with Zack, how she’s suddenly thrown into the deep end of the PR world by way of great tragedy, and her arc from a vengeful kid to a true hero (the special’s shaky writing of this arc notwithstanding.  But at least I get what they were TRYING to do here.)  JJ did not have anything CLOSE to that.  

Something else about him that’s funny but also frustrating because it’s obviously not intended by the writers, but still happens WAY too often for my liking, is how his existence is honestly a detriment to a lot of women in this franchise kjkfdj he was the catalyst for the old SPD ranking drama, as him being green meant Syd and Z had to stay as pink and yellow (and no, them throwing in some random female OC no one remembers as blue does not make up for it.)  And then….Kat……well…..I think this belongs in a discussion that covers more than just JJ, as in a way how they handled Trini in OaA is a very similar situation, but the fact of the matter is that since JJ’s inclusion in the canon Kat’s existence has boiled down to being his mother rather than a veteran ranger with her own life and work, no matter how many times the show and books TRY to be like “No look!  See!  She’s a super cool badass wife who keeps everyone in line!  She’s off doing her own things, too, we swear!”  my brother in Christ the same 30th anniversary story that tries to show off how cool and independent she is ALSO has a scene where she’s like “it’s okay honey, you take care of the Ranger missions while I stay home with JJ, it’s fine :)”  They’ve made it very clear that JJ is Tommy’s son, Tommy’s legacy, while Kat is his stay-at-home caretaker, WHICH IS FINE FOR A WOMAN TO BE, but not in this narrative, where Kat’s time as a ranger is treated as irrelevant compared to Tommy’s. (A good example is how, in SotD, only Tommy was listed as JJ's emergency contact, with no mention of Kat. I'm almost certain there was an early draft of this book where Tommy did not have a wife.)  How do we have two (2) comic stories where we have married TomKat but Kat doesn’t morph.  And not as a plot point or character bit or something (I think it actually would be very interesting if Kat not having much attachment to her time as a Ranger was actually intentional) but just in a “we don’t feel like involving Kat in her husband’s adventures” situation.  Hello????????  I know that kind of feels off-topic to why JJ sucks but trust me, it’s partly his fault.  And it’s why I’m making such a big deal over the potential mother/daughter Ranger teamup for Kim and Olivia, because the alternate mother of Tommy's alternate kid has gotten such a raw deal.     

And the SPD/Dragon Shield combo is ugly.

[sleepyorchidmonster]

Thinking again about the future Interschool Spelldrive competition, what if we get a second boot camp (it almost worked on Book 5, damn you Rook).

This time, things would be a bit more hectic, though.

Assuming the team would consist of all the overblotters + Grim, here's some headcanons:

- After a lot of arguing, they agree to name Vil the leader, with Leona acting as the coach and captain;

- To make things easier, they establish a few rules, only to remember Riddle is there. They settle for "No fighting or it's Off With Your Head for a day";

- Vil creates a skincare routine for everyone;

- Malleus and Leona are constantly bickering;

- There was an attempt to enforce a diet (it was just a ban on Idia's instant noodles), but Riddle got offended and we got this exchange:

Riddle: As you can see, I already follow a strict diet, so no need to worry!

Vil: That's way too unhealthy, you're starving yourself! You need more nutrients!

Yuu: Soooo, is this plus the overblot enough to call the CPS on Riddle's mom already? And revoke her license while we're at it?

Grim: Man, everytime we think we've seen the worst of her, Mrs. Rosehearts just finds a new way to show how she sucks at parenting...

Everyone: WHAT THE ACTUA-

Riddle: MOVING ON!!

(Azul also wanted to say a few things on the diet part, but Leona cut him off with a pointed look and a "You're fine, octopunk, remember, don't let the opinions of a bunch of jerks control you! Be yourself and be healthy!")

- They dealt with the Mrs. Rosehearts problem as soon as possible to avoid a murder on the day of the game;

- They wake up early for practice! Idia and Leona have to be dragged out of their beds. The others started a game over who could wake these two the fastest (Vil brough an orchestra while Yuu brought Adeuce and a kazoo, Jamil won) ;

- I sincerely don't know where Azul or Idia would be on the team due to their low stamina and hatred of brooms. Right now it's Riddle, Jamil and Vil on brooms, Leona and Malleus on the ground. Maybe Idia on the ground while Azul goes through his character arc and flies;

- Game nights for team building. Don't let them play Uno or Monopoly. Jamil is killing it on DDR though;

- To teach them the importance (and how to skirt the rules) Leona created a game where people have to break a rule and not get caught by the referee (Riddle). If you can escape his notice, you're fine;

- They exchange Spelldrive tactics, though most moves are familiar to the rest, Heartslabyul's "Throw the disk and the player into the goal" was new (it was inspired by the chandelier incident);

- Vil is designing a new NRC outfit (team spirit requires a good team outfit);

- They may or may not find a hidden catacomb in Ramshackle;

- Jamil has finally known peace, he just needs a set of headphones;

- Breakfast time includes a lot of yelling. Riddle can be seen drinking tea with the ghosts on the ceiling, trying to avoid the chaos. Malleus sometimes joins the group;

The rest of the cast pays them regular visits to make sure nobody died yet.

[mehoymalloy]

An Imogen/Otohan "drabble" (it's actually almost 2k)

Entitled:

"Imogen and Otohan Do the Silly Spider-Man Kiss But the Author Takes It Way Too Seriously"

(all because @inomakani gave me a silly prompt and I just kept working on it whenever my brain was too tired to focus on other WIPs. I'm posting this only on tumblr because I refuse for for my tenth published Imogen/Otohan work to be this bullshit lol)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this is set in my Let Me/Won't You AU (which, If you keep up with this rarepair at all, you likely already know; if this is your first glimpse of the ship, allow me to apologize in advance).

~

"So you're the reason I woke up with a racing heart," Imogen mutters.

She gingerly leans back against a short tree, mindful of rough bark scraping her skin through the fabric of her sleep shirt. Tired eyes sweep across her surroundings, squinting to try and discern more shapes in the darkness.

A small camp has been set up in a copse of small trees and scraggly shrubbery. The remains of a fire smolder nearby, set in a shallow scrape dug into the dirt and cleared of any surrounding foliage that could catch fire.

The glowing ashes provide far less light than Ruidus: the ruddy moon sits ominously in the sky, close enough to give the distinct impression of lurking over one's shoulder rather than perched on the distant horizon. Gently undulating ley lines sprawl across the sky, converging at the bright beam of energy that leashes the moon to Exandria. Judging the distance, they can't be too far from the Key. Imogen glances down, gently dragging a sock-clad toe against the Hellcatch Valley's signature dry and craggy earth. Crimson moonglow filters through the sparse foliage, dappling the dusty ground like blood splatter on skin.

Imogen raises her gaze to the only other person present: Otohan is not far from the fire and a deserted bedroll, half stripped of their armor as if they had considered getting at least a little comfortable before abandoning the notion entirely. Their cloak and extraneous bits of armor have been removed, leaving Otohan in hide leggings and a fitted, padded tank, clearly meant to protect vital organs from injury. They look like they had every intention of getting some rest, but they are the furthest thing from settled. Instead, they're doing honest-to-gods push-ups in the early morning hours.

Otohan barely spares Imogen a glance as they push themselves back up from their near-prone position, palms protected from shale and grit by their customary fingerless gloves.

"And you're the reason I couldn't sleep to begin with," they huff. "Anxiety plagues you even in sleep, you know."

Imogen can't help but snort slightly at that. "I'm well aware—nice to know someone else suffers with me, though," she mutters.

Otohan gives no response as they push themselves to stand, adjusting their stance and sinking into a squat.

Imogen shoves herself off the tree, strolling to the campfire and prodding the embers with a nearby stick. Otohan's gaze is heavy on her as Imogen turns and plops down onto Otohan's bedroll. She reaches for a crumpled sheet at the foot of the bedroll, likely kicked aside at some point.

"What're you doing out in the middle of the desert anyway?" Imogen shakes the blanket out, watching as a cloud of dust falls from the rough-cut hemline. "Last I heard, you were the moon's guard dog or somethin'," she says snidely, folding the cloth in half and over itself again neatly simply to do something with her hands. When she glances back to Otohan, they have not paused their routine, though they hold Imogen's gaze with a level stare.

"Is there a specific reason you're still gracing me with your company?" Otohan asks, ignoring Imogen's jab.

Imogen sets the sheet aside, considering why she did choose to sit down rather than simply leave. Otohan stands fully, shaking their legs out one at a time before lifting their arms over their head. They bend one elbow to clasp the opposite, leaning into the arc their arm creates to give their side a long stretch. Then, they swap arms and do the same with the opposite side.

Imogen admittedly watches, trailing her gaze from Otohan's fingertips down their arms, tracing over flexing biceps to broad shoulders.

It's strange to see a glimpse of Otohan's routine—to know that the person who ruthlessly killed Orym coincidentally has a similar habit of doing push-ups when they can't sleep.

"I guess it's sort of, I don't know, novel to see you just existing," she mutters, a subtle frown twisting her features.

Otohan audibly snorts. "Did you think I spend all my time standing around ominously?"

Imogen rolls her eyes as Otohan turns away, striding toward the largest tree (which really isn't saying much) in this patch of scraggly foliage. They swing their arms in a few wide but controlled arcs, then abruptly leap upward.

It's interesting—during that awful day in Bassuras, Imogen had assumed Otohan darted around the street using some modified form of flight, or maybe even with the contraption on their back. But without the heat of battle to distract, Imogen can plainly feel the source of Otohan's enhanced ability.

Imogen's own powers always come with a strange sort of lightness—a skin-tingling sensation that accompanies every arc of lightning and telekinetic shove. It's a feeling that races through her bloodstream and sparks on the back of her tongue, raising the hairs on her arms as all that power seemingly strains to escape her.

But with Otohan, their power has a palpable weight. In the second before Otohan jumps, when both their feet are planted on the ground, Imogen leans forward ever so slightly against her will, pulled in by a subtle sense of gravity that seems to originate from Otohan themself. When they launch themself upward, all that gathered force expands, sweeping over Imogen like shockwaves, burrowing into her bones and reverberating through her form. Otohan isn't weaving a spell with the mysterious magic assumedly shared by all Exaltants; they're shaping their will into a concentrated force and physically exerting it.

It's subtle, but in the late night quiet, every little nuance and fleeting sensation strikes like bells in Imogen's skull before ringing throughout her frame, leaving her strangely dizzy from the feeling of powers so different from her own, shared through the strange connection between them.

All so Otohan can cover an unnatural height in one leap and grab hold of one of the tree's thicker branches. They adjust their grip, and then they start doing pull-ups.

As Imogen shakes off the subtle, lingering sensation of Otohan's magic, flexing her fingers and swallowing as if to expel or smother it. She admittedly studies Otohan. She trails her eyes over markings her fingertips had already been acquainted with, matching the memory of how they had felt beneath her hands with the sight before her now. Twisting crimson scars splay out from beneath the straps of Otohan's shirt, spreading across their shoulders and climbing up the nape of their neck, shifting and writhing as the muscles beneath contract. Shrouded in darkness and dappled with moonlight, the markings glint like raw wounds against Otohan's dark skin.

"Now you're just showing off," Imogen drawls.

Otohan actually huffs a laugh at that. "This isn't showing off," they toss over their shoulder.

They hang there and adjust their grip until their hands are spread further than the width of their shoulders, and then they lift their legs, curling their knees up to their chest. Arms flexing, they slowly lean backward, rotating like a wheel and bringing their knees up through their arms. Extending their legs, they securely hook their knees over the branch and let go, keeping their elbows tucked close to their sides as they steadily lower themselves until they fully hang upside down.

"This is showing off," they say pointedly, tone flat even as the faintest smirk curls at the corner of their lips. They then do a literal sit-up, engaging their core and keeping their back as straight as they can as they slowly curl upward until their chin nearly touches their knees.

Imogen snorts aloud. "You're ridiculous," she says, vaguely bewildered by just how true the statement is as Otohan lowers themself and arches an eyebrow at her. Silver curls hang freely, exposing more of those crimson markings along the sides of Otohan's neck that would otherwise be concealed beneath their cloak and armor.

Otohan only shoots Imogen a subtle, shockingly playful smirk as they do another sit-up, then another. Imogen watches with furrowed brows, repressing a rebellious grin. Otohan's shirt shifts and falls little by little with each crunch, soon exposing their belly button, which protrudes ever so slightly.

"Oh my god, you have an outie," Imogen exclaims before she can stop herself.

Otohan pauses (still upside down), staring at Imogen in confusion as they stretch their arms and arch their back. "Yes?"

"Weird," Imogen murmurs—not that Otohan's belly button is weird, more so that knowing about it is oddly unnerving. It's yet more proof that Otohan is a person as much as they are a monster. "You can stop showing off now."

Otohan's bemused expression morphs into a smirk as they pointedly do another sit-up.

When they do yet another, Imogen exerts her own power, holding Otohan in place.

Otohan's eyebrows raise in surprise, but their smirk takes on a challenging tilt—that feral edge Imogen finds preferable simply because it's predictable.

As Otohan tries to push through, Imogen clenches her jaw and twists her fingers in the worn fabric of Otohan's bedroll, leaning forward slightly as she focuses on keeping Otohan held fast.

Slowly but surely, Otohan steadily curls upward. Abdominal muscles strain to fight the added pressure, and Otohan grits their teeth and breathes sharply through their nose with the effort. When it becomes apparent that Otohan will eventually break through, Imogen abruptly releases her hold over them.

Otohan grunts as they snap upward, nearly knocking their chin against their knees and losing their balance enough that they have to grip the branch with one hand to catch themself.

Imogen barks a surprised laugh and shoves herself upright, only to bend over when she can't quite stop laughing, stifled chuckles escaping between each lungful of air.

That invisible force, that strange sense of gravity, suddenly reasserts itself, clamping down around Imogen's navel and nearly yanking her feet out from under her as Otohan drags her across the short distance between them. The only reason she doesn't trip is that Otohan hastily catches her, hands momentarily unsure where to land from their odd angle but assuredly gripping her biceps once they do find purchase.

"You think you're so funny," Otohan huffs, and Imogen grins despite herself as she meets their weak glare, noting the way their eyes crinkle from a barely repressed smile.

"Says the one who's smiling," Imogen points out. She reaches out to tug one of those dangling curls before she can think better of it, and then she immediately wants to slap herself for doing something so stupidly silly.

"Now who's ridiculous," Otohan mutters. Yet they loosen their grip on Imogen's arms, fingers skimming up to weave through the ends of her hair. They don't tug, though they might just consider it, Imogen thinks, as Otohan's gaze darts all over her face, lingering on her lips.

Again, Imogen acts before she thinks. She leans in and gives Otohan a quick peck on the lips.

Otohan's vaguely amused expression falls into absolute bewilderment. Imogen's playfulness dies at the expression as reality rushes back in: yes, they are both ridiculous, but that fleeting, practically innocent kiss is downright preposterous.

Imogen flushes in embarrassment and starts to pull away, only for Otohan to slip their hands up and around to the back of her neck, tangling their fingers in her hair and tugging her back. Lips meet clumsily, slotting together rather awkwardly from the unfamiliar angle. Noses bump against chins as the two of them expel twin huffs of surprise—Imogen at Otohan and Otohan at their own actions, apparently.

Imogen automatically reaches up, fingers finding purchase in silver curls, thumbs swiping across the sharp hollows of Otohan's cheeks. It only takes a moment of adjustment before awkwardness morphs to assurance, before hands grip tight and lips move with purpose. It's ridiculous, and Imogen doesn't allow herself to linger on that fact as she kisses Otohan back.

[josukegappyhigashikata]

The narrative purpose of a comeback: Finishing a character arc

So, after the release of the eleventh episode of All Stars I've seen a lot of people complaining about Connor coming back but he was easily one of the most sensible choices narratively speaking and I wanna discuss why and how he is one of the most sensible options to have been brought back to furthering the narrative of the characters in the show.

First of, I wanna say that I knew my season two favorites were not coming back. I knew James, Lake or Tess were not coming back as they had zero to none personal growth left for them. Disventure Camp is a show heavily focused on character arcs and those three characters had already finished their character arcs in their season. There was no need for them to come back.

On the other hand my two season one favorites, Ellie and Fiore, did have some chances but those chances were squashed on the episode. Why? Because they served their narrative purpose as characters. Fiore's unfulfillment was with Alec and the eleventh episode dedicated a lot of time to them bonding and mending their relationship showcasing an evolution for both characters. Ellie is on a weird spot since not only I wished she had more time with Gabby but also some more dialogue of how she is outside of the show but then I am not angry since this isn't about her, Ellie has been relegated second for Gabby's arc and so Gabby being alone is a requirement therefore Ellie can't be there.

Now Connor? That's a character that had stuff to do yet. I was a little bit foolish about Riya's character arc on a previous post but upon retrospectively I've realized that it would be quite a sour end to leave Riya as a one note villain just for a persona that gives her fame on a show with multiple characters showcasing how you need to deny online and public personas for your betterment (James, Ally and Grett) so Riya keeping in that area would not be proper.

Not only Riya but also Alec. If Jake is the character we focus the most on a personal narrative then Alec is the character we focus the most for an argumental narrative, most of the happenings in the show are a product or consequence of something related to Alec directly or indirectly almost all of the narrative is tied to Alec in some shape of form, even the Jake and Tom plus Aiden mess since he was the one that blew on the spark of Jake's insecurities... and what character would serve for Alec's narrative? Besides Fiore? Only Connor fits the bill since Connor and Alec relate to each other and formed a bond.

Besides, Connor also has a little bit of weight in another narrative... Trevor's. Now that Emily is gone Trevor would probably need a character to bounce off if his narrative with Derek is gonna be stretched out through the rest of the episodes and since him and Connor already bonded in a precious episode it would make the most sense for him to be the character to replace Emily as Trevor's support.

Connor will also serve other narrative purposes of course, especially with the Hero's Alliance since he will obviously join that side so maybe we'll see him bond over with Jake, Ally, Tom and Aiden or we might even see him bond with some villains like Gabby and Grett... that or it'll be straightforward and he'll just serve his narrative purpose for Alec, Riya and Trevor.

This is me not saying that the writing of Disventure Camp is perfect cuz it truly isn't and it showed a lot of its flaws during this episode and besides other issues that truly aren't my place to speak but I do wanna take Disventure Camp as a quick and easy jump point from talking about how we, as spectators, need to think of what creators are doing for the narrative and not think of what we would like the narrative do be or at least not until the story is finished. We need to think more pragmatic when it comes to analyzing stories, we can't just think of what we like or dislike since like or dislike are not only subjective to people but also they are reactions that the creator might want you to have.

Like, and this is very direct, why would you want your favorite character to come back for? What would Hunter be back for? What was left for James to do in his story? What would it add for Lake's character to come back? What did Fiore need for her character that wasn't given in this episode? What narrative would benefit from your favorite character coming back to the show?

[dufferpuffer]

Unpopular opinion: had JKR died after writing OotP, the series would have been better that way. The last two books have rather poor pacing, do not add much to the setting or characters, destroy all of the credibility of Voldemort as villain (for the adult leader, at least), and probably do more harm than good to Severus Snape's character. Yes, we wouldn't have had Grindelore (or Grindelwald in general), Snily and Kreacher redemption, but... these are still not enough to redeem the existence of HBP and DH. And fans would almost certainly came up with a better series continuation/finale.

I read this as "Unpopular Opinion: JKR died after writing OotP"

For HBP - I'd say that is unpopular. I like that one, I like how everything went in it, I think she finally worked out how to write a decent mystery... and it was great for Dumbledore's arc.

I'm not saying the Author is particularly good, she was just fine - but she did a decent job in specific ways I don't trust fandom to: I like that she is a nasty, biting, distrusting, traumatized little weirdo that knows what its like to suffer and be trapped. I like that she knows what its like to be deeply mentally unwell, crippled by it - and how fame and money don't change that. I like that Harry Potter is a miserable, nasty, darker version of the Muggle world - and I think most things since the books ended just... forget that. Make it cozy. The love softens the hurt. But she never did that. She made Love a theme - but allowed her characters and her world to be brutalized at every turn. It's great!

This fandom? Handling Dumbledore after OotP? Handling Draco Malfoy? Handling the recent death of Sirius Black? Handling the sheer concept of Harry being a doomed child-soldier...? Shit, we can't do that now, with all the hindsight. All the expanded world-building we got in the last two books, now that Harry was older and given more independence...? Gone? Like 70% of who Snape is and why he does things is in those last two books. And he was one of the few things done perfectly: He is the thread knitting the entire story together. it might be called Harry Potter - but the story is about Severus. He was everywhere doing everything, and you don't realize till right at the end... yet can go back, through every book, and see it quite clearly, now that you can look back on them with Harry's adult eyes and not his kid eyes. She pulled it off really well. It makes a re-read of the books almost mandatory just to go WOAH. It's not One Piece, but it's good - especially for childrens fiction. I'm pretty happy with what we got, especially in HBP.

DH... eh. That one dragged its feet... I like most of the ideas and set-pieces: Starting the book with Moody's death shattered the entire concept of the Order - Hedwigs death was a nice touch, Harry's complete loss of 'Home'... the death of Charity... the wedding getting interrupted... the idea of these kids camping and starving and getting captured over tiny mistakes... But yeah - the way they are executed and tied together is lackluster. Especially the final conflict and the goddamn epilogue. It feels like it was rushed. That there were dot-points and they were strung together and said 'good enough' - because ending something is hard. But HPs ending was unsatisfying. We can do better.

I don't really know what you mean by it destroying Voldemorts credibility as a villain. Like he wasn't the most compelling villain overall, but I don't know what in the last two books was particularly bad. Maybe I'm forgetting something. I don't think about Tom much... But as an egocentric manipulator, only interested in his life story, using prejudice that already exists in the world for his own gain despite not caring for it himself...? I think that went ok.

Please don't take this wall of text as like angry at you or anything - I just blab! It's an interesting idea, Harry Potter without the final two books. You're right in saying 'not wanting HBP' being an unpopular opinion... I dunno if the same can be said about DH :^9